Spirituality moderates the effect of stress on emotional and physical adjustment

This study examined the relationship of spirituality with emotional and physical adjustment to daily stress. One hundred and thirteen college students completed questionnaire measures of spirituality, daily stress, affect, and physical symptoms at two times one month apart. The results showed that spirituality buffered the adverse effect of stress on adjustment, controlling for the use of various coping strategies. The findings have implications for developing prevention programs to improve people's coping skills by incorporating greater emphasis on spirituality.     

A test of written emotional disclosure as an intervention for posttraumatic stress disorder

This study examined the efficacy of the written emotional disclosure (WED) procedure with a sample of young adults who met diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants were randomly assigned to either WED or a control writing condition and were assessed at baseline and one month following the writing sessions. During each writing session, participants’ heart rate was recorded; participants also provided self-report ratings of emotional responding. Findings indicated no significant group differences for PTSD and depression symptom severity at follow-up assessment. Relative to control participants, WED participants displayed significantly greater heart rate activity and reported greater emotional responding during the first writing session; however, no reduction in emotional responding occurred for either condition from the first to the last writing session. Taken together, these findings indicate that WED may not be an efficacious intervention for PTSD. Suggestions are made for future work in this area.     

Something to smile about: The interrelationship between attractiveness and emotional expression

Previous studies have suggested a link between the processing of the emotional expression of a face and how attractive it appears. In two experiments we investigated the interrelationship between attractiveness and happiness. In Experiment 1 we presented morphed faces varying in attractiveness and happiness and asked participants to choose the more attractive of two simultaneously presented faces. In the second experiment we used the same stimuli as in Experiment 1 and asked participants to choose the happier face. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that the evaluation of attractiveness is strongly influenced by the intensity of a smile expressed on a face: A happy facial expression could even compensate for relative unattractiveness. Conversely, the findings of Experiment 2 showed that facial attractiveness also influences the evaluation of happiness: It was easier to choose the happier of two faces if the happier face was also more attractive. We discuss the interrelationship of happiness and attractiveness with regard to evolutionary relevance of positive affective status and rewarding effects.     

Implicit interpretation biases affect emotional vulnerability: A training study

Cognitive theories of emotion propose that the interpretation of emotion-eliciting situations crucially shapes affective responses. Implicit or automatic biases in these interpretations may hinder emotion regulation and thereby increase risk for the onset and maintenance of psychological disorders. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to a positive or negative interpretation bias training using ambiguous social scenarios. After the completion of the training, a stress task was administered and changes in positive and negative affect and self-esteem were assessed. The results demonstrate that the interpretation bias training was successful in that participants exhibited a tendency to interpret novel scenarios in accordance with their training condition. Importantly, the positive training condition also had a protective effect on self-esteem. Participants in this condition did not exhibit a decrease in self-esteem after the stress task, whereas participants in the negative condition did. These results demonstrate that implicit cognitive biases can be trained and that this training affects self-esteem. Implications of these findings for research on psychopathology and emotion regulation are discussed.     

Nonverbal signals speak up: Association between perceptual nonverbal dominance and emotional intelligence

Emotional communication uses verbal and nonverbal means. In case of conflicting signals, nonverbal information is assumed to have a stronger impact. It is unclear, however, whether perceptual nonverbal dominance varies between individuals and whether it is linked to emotional intelligence. Using audiovisual stimulus material comprising verbal and nonverbal emotional cues that were varied independently, perceptual nonverbal dominance profiles and their relations to emotional intelligence were examined. Nonverbal dominance was found in every participant, ranging from 55 to 100%. Moreover, emotional intelligence, particularly the ability to understand emotions, correlated positively with nonverbal dominance. Furthermore, higher overall emotional intelligence as well as a higher ability to understand emotions were linked to smaller reaction time differences between emotionally incongruent and congruent stimuli. The association between perceptual nonverbal dominance and emotional intelligence, and more specifically the ability to understand emotions, might reflect an adaptive process driven by the experience of higher authenticity in nonverbal cues.     

Dispositional mindfulness and perceived stress: The role of emotional intelligence

The present study examined the relationships between dispositional mindfulness, emotional intelligence and perceived stress using self-report measures. We administered the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), and the Perceive Stress Scale (PPS) to a non-clinical sample of Chinese adults (n = 380). The results showed that mindfulness was positively associated with four components of WLEIS, and negatively associated with perceived stress. Mediation analysis indicated that only the regulation and use of emotion components of WLEIS acted as mediators of the association between mindfulness and perceived stress. Effect contrasts showed no significant difference between the specific indirect effects through these two mediators. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

An emotional processing writing intervention and heart rate variability: the role of emotional approach

Expressing and understanding one's own emotional responses to negative events, particularly those that challenge the attainment of important life goals, is thought to confer physiological benefit. Individual preferences and/or abilities in approaching emotions might condition the efficacy of interventions designed to encourage written emotional processing (EP). This study examines the physiological impact (as indexed by heart rate variability (HRV)) of an emotional processing writing (EPW) task as well as the moderating influence of a dispositional preference for coping through emotional approach (EP and emotional expression (EE)), in response to a laboratory stress task designed to challenge an important life goal. Participants (n?=?98) were randomly assigned to either EPW or fact control writing (FCW) following the stress task. Regression analyses revealed a significant dispositional EP by condition interaction, such that high EP participants in the EPW condition demonstrated higher HRV after writing compared to low EP participants. No significant main effects of condition or EE coping were observed. These findings suggest that EPW interventions may be best suited for those with preference or ability to process emotions related to a stressor or might require adaptation for those who less often cope through emotional approach.     

When feeling bad makes you look good: Guilt,shame, and person perception

In two studies, we examined how expressions of guilt and shame affected person perception. In the first study, participants read an autobiographical vignette in which the writer did something wrong and reported feeling either guilt, shame, or no emotion. The participants then rated the writer's motivations, beliefs, and traits, as well as their own feelings toward the writer. The person expressing feelings of guilt or shame was perceived more positively on a number of attributes, including moral motivation and social attunement, than the person who reported feeling no emotion. In the second study, the writer of the vignette reported experiencing (or not experiencing) cognitive and motivational aspects of guilt or shame. Expressing a desire to apologise (guilt) or feelings of worthlessness (private shame) resulted in more positive impressions than did reputational concerns (public shame) or a lack of any of these feelings. Our results indicate that verbal expressions of moral emotions such as guilt and shame influence perception of moral character as well as likeability.     

Pessimism moderates negative emotional responses to naturally occurring stress

Repeated experiences with stress and negative emotion (NE) can decrease psychological and physical well-being. Ruminating on stressful events can further prolong NE responses, especially for those who are pessimistic. For three days participants (N = 68) reported hourly on their current stress, rumination, perceived control, and NE. Tests of mediation conducted using multilevel modeling suggested that rumination mediated same-time reports of stress on NE, and predicted perpetuation of NE over time. Tests of moderated mediation indicated that the pathways from previous stress to rumination, and from rumination to current NE were moderated by pessimism, but not optimism. Perception of control also accounted for some of the variability between concurrent stress and NE, though these associations were not affected by pessimism.     

Incidental retrieval of emotional contexts in post-traumatic stress disorder and depression: an fMRI study

In the present study, we used fMRI to assess patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, and trauma-exposed controls, during an episodic memory retrieval task that included non-trauma-related emotional information. In the study phase of the task neutral pictures were presented in emotional or neutral contexts. Participants were scanned during the test phase, when they were presented with old and new neutral images in a yes/no recognition memory task. fMRI results for the contrast between old and new items revealed activation in a predominantly left-sided network of cortical regions including the left middle temporal, bilateral posterior cingulate, and left prefrontal cortices. Activity common to all three groups when correctly judging pictures encoded in emotional contexts was much more limited. Relative to the control and depressed groups the PTSD group exhibited greater sensitivity to correctly recognised stimuli in the left amygdala/ventral striatum and right occipital cortex, and more specific sensitivity to items encoded in emotional contexts in the right precuneus, left superior frontal gyrus, and bilateral insula. These results are consistent with a substantially intact neural system supporting episodic retrieval in patients suffering from PTSD. Moreover, there was little indication that PTSD is associated with a marked change in the way negatively valenced information, not of personal significance, is processed.     

Disclosing Sexual Assault Within Social Networks: A Mixed‐Method Investigation

Most survivors of sexual assault disclose their experiences within their social networks, and these disclosure decisions can have important implications for their entry into formal systems and well‐being, but no research has directly examined these networks as a strategy to understand disclosure decisions. Using a mixed‐method approach that combined survey data, social network analysis, and interview data, we investigate whom, among potential informal responders in the social networks of college students who have experienced sexual assault, survivors contact regarding their assault, and how survivors narrate the role of networks in their decisions about whom to contact. Quantitative results suggest that characteristics of survivors, their social networks, and members of these networks are associated with disclosure decisions. Using data from social network analysis, we identified that survivors tended to disclose to a smaller proportion of their network when many network members had relationships with each other or when the network had more subgroups. Our qualitative analysis helps to contextualize these findings.     

The importance of being flexible: the ability to both enhance and suppress emotional expression predicts long-term adjustment

Researchers have documented the consequences of both expressing and suppressing emotion using between-subjects designs. It may be argued, however, that successful adaptation depends not so much on any one regulatory process, but on the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression in accord with situational demands. We tested this hypothesis among New York City college students in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Subjects' performance in a laboratory task in which they enhanced emotional expression, suppressed emotional expression, and behaved normally on different trials was examined as a prospective predictor of their adjustment across the first two years of college. Results supported the flexibility hypothesis. A regression analysis controlling for initial distress and motivation and cognitive resources found that subjects who were better able to enhance and suppress the expression of emotion evidenced less distress by the end of the second year. Memory deficits were also observed for both the enhancement and the suppression tasks, suggesting that both processes require cognitive resources.     

Sensitive but not sentimental: Emotionally intelligent people can put their emotions aside when necessary

Are emotionally intelligent people sentimental? Does their greater sensitivity handicap them or are they able, as theory would expect, to experience and regulate emotions flexibly, depending on their goals? We examined this issue in organizational settings. Good managers are indeed expected to be both attuned to feelings (theirs as well as their subordinates’) and able to put them aside when needed to take tough (but necessary) decisions. Our results show that emotionally intelligent managers do make better managers, as reflected by greater managerial competencies, higher team efficiency and less stressed subordinates. Moreover, and most importantly, emotionally intelligent managers are not just nicer managers. As our results show, emotional intelligence has nothing to do with sentimentality. Actually, it is managers with low EI who have the greatest difficulties to put their emotions aside and not let them interfere when inappropriate.     

Explaining the protective effect of trait emotional intelligence regarding occupational stress: Exploration of emotional labour processes

This paper aims at understanding the processes explaining the protective effect of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) regarding occupational stress. The present study focuses on a widespread occupational stressor: emotional labour (EL). EL refers to the act of managing emotions and emotional expressions in order to be consistent with organizational ‘display rules’, defined as the organizationally required emotions during interpersonal service transactions. As these display rules interact with employees spontaneous feelings, they regularly induce a clash between inner/real and required feelings. Different strategies exist to cope with this dissonance, with either beneficial or deleterious outcomes regarding psychological and physical health. The hypothesis underlying this study was that individuals varying in the level of trait EI would use different EL strategies, with different outcomes in terms of burnout and somatic complaints. Globally, the results showed that, when confronted with emotional labour, high trait EI individuals experience lower levels of burnout and somatic complaints, and this effect was found to be mediated by the choice of emotional labour strategies. Implications of these results for research, theory and practice are discussed.     

Childhood exposure to emotional abuse and later life stress among Kenyan women: a mediation analysis of cross-sectional data

Background and objective: We explore whether perceived stress among Kenyan mothers is predicted by childhood exposure to emotional abuse – both witnessed among parents and experienced directly. Further, we explore whether this association is mediated by social support, family functioning and polygynous marriage.

Design: We used cross-sectional data from a systematic random sample (n?=?1974) of mothers in semi-rural Kenya.

Methods: Data were collected using validated scales and trained interviewers. Analyses were conducted using bootstrapped structural equation models and fixed-effects linear regression models, controlling for age and household wealth.

Results: Reported experience of emotional abuse – both directly experienced and observed among household adults – was high in the present population (72.5% and 69%, respectively). Perceived stress among women was significantly higher if they were exposed to more emotional abuse during childhood (p?<?.001). Lower social support, worse family functioning and higher rates of polygynous marriage mediated pathways between emotional abuse exposure during childhood and adult perceived stress.

Conclusion: Future research should investigate whether social integration, identity formation and self-esteem underlie observed dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa. Efforts to promote social integration and support should target children currently experiencing emotional abuse, and may include child-targeted high quality television programing and adult-targeted media and celebrity campaigns.     

The emotional and reconstructive determinants of emotional memories: An experimental approach to flashbulb memory investigation

Flashbulb memories (FBMs) are vivid and detailed memories of the reception context of a public emotional event. Brown and Kulik (1977) introduced the label FBM to suggest the idea that individuals are able to preserve knowledge of an event in an indiscriminate way, in analogy with a photograph that preserves all details of a scene. Research work on FBMs has primarily been conducted using a naturalistic approach in order to explore the role of the emotional and reconstructive factors on FBM formation and maintenance. Nevertheless, these studies lack a sufficient control on the factors that might intervene in the process of FBM formation. The contribution of the present studies is addressed to experimentally investigating the role of emotional and reconstructive factors on emotionally charged memories, specifically on FBMs. Paralleling FBM findings, the two studies revealed that simply being in an emotional state allows people to remember all available information, such as irrelevant and unrelated details. Furthermore, the resulting memories are affected by reconstructive processes so that they are not as accurate as their richness of details would suggest.     

Conceptualizing stress to study effects on health: Environmental,perceptual, and emotional components

Abstract

Stress has been operationalized in numerous ways across studies of physical and mental health, raising questions about the appropriate definition of stress and the construct validity of stress measures. The present paper discusses the theoretical and operational strengths of three prominent approaches to stress definition and then attempts to integrate them into a comprehensive and robust multidimensional definition of stress. In a study of socioeconomically disadvantaged pregnant women, structural equation modelling techniques were used to test whether a single latent construct underlies environmental, perceptual, and response-based indicators of stress. Results suggested a two-factor, rather than a single-factor, model of stress. Stress perception and emotion were part of a single underlying latent factor, a phenomenological stress construct, whereas environmental conditions in the form of major life events represented a second and distinct component of stress. Failure to find a single latent stress construct is interpreted as evidence for the importance of individual perception or appraisal as a mediator of response to difficult environmental conditions. The findings suggest that multidimensional models of stress are theoretically justified and that enhancement of stress measurement in this manner may enable researchers to better identify health effects of stress.     

Cognitive reappraisal attenuates the association between depressive symptoms and emotional response to stress during adolescence

Depression is associated with increased emotional response to stress. This is especially the case during the developmental period of adolescence. Cognitive reappraisal is an effective emotion regulation strategy that has been shown to reduce the impact of emotional response on psychopathology. However, less is known about whether cognitive reappraisal impacts the relationship between depressive symptoms and emotional responses, and whether its effects are specific to emotional reactivity or emotional recovery. The current study examined whether cognitive reappraisal moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and trait or state measures of emotional reactivity and recovery. A community sample of 127 adolescents (M-age?=?15.28; 49% female, 47% Caucasian), at an age of risk for depression, completed self-report measures of trait emotional responding and depressive symptoms. In addition, they completed an in vivo social stress task and were assessed on state emotional reactivity and recovery from the stressor. Findings suggested that cognitive reappraisal was associated with an attenuated impact of depressive symptoms on trait and state emotional recovery. These results provide evidence that cognitive reappraisal may be an effective strategy for improving some aspects of emotional responding in relation to depressive symptoms among adolescents.     

Examining the role of emotional valence of mind wandering: All mind wandering is not equal

To evaluate the role of emotional valence on the impact of mind wandering on working memory (WM) and sustained attention, we reanalyzed data from three independently conducted studies that examined the impact of stress on WM (Banks & Boals, 2016; Banks, Welhaf, & Srour, 2015) and sustained attention (Banks, Tartar, & Welhaf, 2014). Across all studies, participants reported the content of their thoughts at random intervals during the WM or sustained attention task. Thought probes in all studies included a core set of response options for task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs) that were negatively, positively, or neutrally emotionally valenced. In line with theories of emotional valenced stimuli on capture of attention, results suggest negatively valenced TUTs, but not positively valenced TUTs, were related to poorer WM and sustained attention in two studies. Neutral TUTs were related to poorer WM but not sustained attention performance. Implications for models of mind wandering are discussed.