Affective individual differences and startle reflex modulation

Potentiation of startle has been demonstrated in experimentally produced aversive emotional states, and clinical reports suggest that potentiated startle may be associated with fear or anxiety. To test the generalizability of startle potentiation across a variety of emotional states as well as its sensitivity to individual differences in fearfulness, the acoustic startle response of 17 high- and 15 low-fear adult subjects was assessed during fear, anger, joy, sadness, pleasant relaxation, and neutral imagery. Startle responses were larger in all aversive affective states than during pleasant imagery. This effect was enhanced among high fear subjects, although followup testing indicated that other affective individual differences (depression and anger) may also be related to increased potentiation of startle in negative affect. Startle latency was reduced during high- rather than low-arousal imagery but was unaffected by emotional valence.     

Respiratory feedback in the generation of emotion

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 for emotion theories based on peripheral feedback and for emotion regulation are discussed.     

Patterns of emotional responses to affective situations: Relations among happiness,sadness, anger,fear, depression,and anxiety

Although emotion research and clinical practice often implicitly entail judgments about the patterns and situational appropriateness of a person's emotional reactions, we have little empirical knowledge of how emotions typically interrelate during various affective situations. To assess patterns of response to normative situations, a questionnaire was constructed and validated to include items primarily eliciting one of six emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, depression, and anxiety) and one of three intensities (low, moderate, and high). A total of 216 persons rated one of four forms of the questionnaire on each of the six emotional categories. Each of the six types of situations generated significantly different patterns of emotion. As Izard (1972) predicted, depression situations elicited more complex patterns of emotion than sadness situations, including significantly more anger, fear, and anxiety. In contrast, anxiety situations did not elicit more complex patterns than fear situations. Rather, the evidence was more consistent with the conclusion that fear is a particular type of anxiety. Various other relations among specific emotions are discussed, as well as some subtle sex differences and intensity effects. The data highlight the sensitivity with which the assessment of patterns of emotions associated with specific situations can produce new information about the nature of affective experience.     

Attitudes toward emotions

The present work outlines a theory of attitudes toward emotions, provides a measure of attitudes toward emotions, and then tests several predictions concerning relationships between attitudes toward specific emotions and emotional situation selection, emotional traits, emotional reactivity, and emotion regulation. The present conceptualization of individual differences in attitudes toward emotions focuses on specific emotions and presents data indicating that 5 emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear, and disgust) load on 5 separate attitude factors (Study 1). Attitudes toward emotions predicted emotional situation selection (Study 2). Moreover, attitudes toward approach emotions (e.g., anger, joy) correlated directly with the associated trait emotions, whereas attitudes toward withdrawal emotions (fear, disgust) correlated inversely with associated trait emotions (Study 3). Similar results occurred when attitudes toward emotions were used to predict state emotional reactivity (Study 4). Finally, attitudes toward emotions predicted specific forms of emotion regulation (Study 5).     

Discrete Emotion and Motivation: Relative Activation in the Appetitive and Aversive Motivational Systems as a Function of Anger,Sadness, Fear,and Joy During Televised Information Campaigns

This study investigated whether predictable motivational activation in the appetitive and aversive systems underlies the production and experience of discrete emotions (anger, sadness, joy, and fear) experienced while viewing televised public service announcements. This study used both self-reports and physiological measures to index motivational activation and emotional experience. In the joy condition, physiological data provided moderate support for the prediction that strong appetitive motivational activation underlies the experience of joy but did not support the concurrent prediction of aversive motivational inhibition. However, the self-report data provided good evidence for both. In the fear condition, the self-report data supported the prediction of strong aversive and inhibited appetitive activation. The physiological data provide strong support for a highly activated aversive system but no support for an inhibited appetitive system. In the sadness condition, the self-report and physiological data supported the prediction that sadness is a moderately activated aversive condition. In the anger condition, the physiological data supported the prediction that anger is a coactive state with both aversive and appetitive activation. This study suggests that research on cognition, emotion, and motivation can benefit by blending findings and insights from both discrete and dimensional approaches to the study of emotion.     

Brief report Effects of spinal cord injuries on the subjective component of emotions

Responses to a structured interview by 19 patients with spinal cord injuries (SCI) (7 women and 12 men) concerning their past (pre‐injury) and present emotions were analysed and compared with responses by 19 SCI‐free controls matched for sex, age, and education. In addition, subjects assessed the valence and arousal of 10 pleasant, 10 neutral, and 10 unpleasant pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System. The results indicate that there is no decrease in emotional experience among individuals with SCI compared with those without. For all the emotional scales (joy, love, sentimentalism, positive emotions as a whole, fear, anger, sadness, and negative emotions as a whole) the SCI group always showed either no change or an increase; this increase was significantly higher in SCI than in control subjects for sadness. No differences were observed between the two groups in the subjective assessment of the pictures. The implications of the results for the James versus Cannon controversy on the theory of emotions are discussed.     

Context effects on emotional and aesthetic evaluations of artworks and IAPS pictures

In the arts emotionally negative objects sometimes can be positively judged. Defining an object as art possibly yields specific changes in how perceivers emotionally experience and aesthetically judge a stimulus. To study how emotional experiences (joy, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and shame ratings, plus facial EMG) and aesthetic judgements (liking ratings) are modulated by an art context (“This is an artwork”) as compared to non-art reality context (“This is a press photograph”) participants evaluated IAPS pictures and veridical artworks depicting emotionally positive and negative content. In line with the assumption that emotional distancing is an essential feature of the art experience we found that positive emotional reactions were attenuated (joy, M. zygomaticus activation) in an art compared to non-art context. However, context had little influence on negative emotional reactions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, shame, and M. corrugator activation) suggesting that these are similar in art and non-art. Importantly, only artworks of emotionally negative content were judged more positively in an art context — thus liked more. This study, in accordance with the assumption of a distanced aesthetic mode, shows that an art context fosters appraisal processes that influence emotional experiences, allowing to judge negative stimuli aesthetically more positively — thus suppressing the immediacy of emotional stimulus content.     

The perception of emotion from body movement in point-light displays of interpersonal dialogue

We examined whether it is possible to identify the emotional content of behaviour from point-light displays where pairs of actors are engaged in interpersonal communication. These actors displayed a series of emotions, which included sadness, anger, joy, disgust, fear, and romantic love. In experiment 1, subjects viewed brief clips of these point-light displays presented the right way up and upside down. In experiment 2, the importance of the interaction between the two figures in the recognition of emotion was examined. Subjects were shown upright versions of (i) the original pairs (dyads), (ii) a single actor (monad), and (iii) a dyad comprising a single actor and his/her mirror image (reflected dyad). In each experiment, the subjects rated the emotional content of the displays by moving a slider along a horizontal scale. All of the emotions received a rating for every clip. In experiment 1, when the displays were upright, the correct emotions were identified in each case except disgust; but, when the displays were inverted, performance was significantly diminished for some emotions. In experiment 2, the recognition of love and joy was impaired by the absence of the acting partner, and the recognition of sadness, joy, and fear was impaired in the non-veridical (mirror image) displays. These findings both support and extend previous research by showing that biological motion is sufficient for the perception of emotion, although inversion affects performance. Moreover, emotion perception from biological motion can be affected by the veridical or non-veridical social context within the displays.     

Emotion and economic development — Data and speculations concerning the relationship between economic factors and emotional experience

While proponents of biological theories of emotion claim the existence of universal emotion and expression patterns, recent theories stress cognitive appraisal mechanisms as elicitors of emotion, thus suggesting the influence of cultural and social factors on emotional experience and emotional expression. Data from a large-scale questionnaire study with about 2400 respondents in 30 countries allowed us to test that notion in part. In this study, respondents had to describe in detail situations in which they had experienced the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, shame, and guilt. The results indicate that emotional expression patterns do seem to be universal, while characteristics of the subjectively experienced emotion, in particular its duration and intensity, show a high variance across country samples. An attempt is made to link these differences to economic data for the different countries, specifically to the gross national product. The rather striking differences found between ‘rich’ and boor' countries are discussed in terms of the frequency of confrontation with emotion eliciting situations and the importance of such situations.     

Spanish validation of an emotion-eliciting set of films

One of the main difficulties in the study of emotion is the induction of a real emotional response by means of artificial techniques. The aim of the current study is to validate the Spanish version of a set of films with the capacity to induce emotions (PIE) under laboratory conditions and to analyze its capacity to provoke differentiated basic emotions. A sample of 127 subjects took part in the study; 57 excerpts of Spanish-dubbed films with capacity in previous studies to induce 7 emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, amusement, tenderness, and neutral emotion were used. Subjective emotional response was measured using the Self-Assessment Manikins and the Discrete Emotions Questionnaire. Films included showed a good capacity to induce positive and negative affects, high levels of emotional activation and variations in the perception of emotional control. They induced basic emotions of amusement and fear in a differentiated way. However, sadness and disgust could not be significantly differentiated from anger; or anger and tenderness from sadness. The PIE could be a useful tool for the experimental research of emotions in Spanish populations.     

Effects of direct and averted gaze on the perception of facially communicated emotion

Research has largely neglected the effects of gaze direction cues on the perception of facial expressions of emotion. It was hypothesized that when gaze direction matches the underlying behavioral intent (approach-avoidance) communicated by an emotional expression, the perception of that emotion would be enhanced (i.e., shared signal hypothesis). Specifically, the authors expected that (a) direct gaze would enhance the perception of approach-oriented emotions (anger and joy) and (b) averted eye gaze would enhance the perception of avoidance-oriented emotions (fear and sadness). Three studies supported this hypothesis. Study 1 examined emotional trait attributions made to neutral faces. Study 2 examined ratings of ambiguous facial blends of anger and fear. Study 3 examined the influence of gaze on the perception of highly prototypical expressions.     

Understanding emotional display rules at work and outside of work: The effects of country and gender

This study examined the long-held, but empirically untested assumption that emotional display rules at work are different from more general display rules. We examined whether the effect of context (work vs. non-work) on display rules depended on rater gender, rater country (i.e., Singapore, United States), and discrete emotion (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, sadness, and happiness). Results revealed that display rules at work involved less expressivity of emotion than did display rules outside of work for all six emotions. Further, display rules in Singapore involved less expressivity of anger, sadness, and fear than display rules in the US, with no country differences being observed for the emotions of happiness, contempt, and disgust. These results were qualified by significant country-by-gender interactions for anger, contempt, and disgust, a significant country-by-context interaction for fear, and a three-way interaction (i.e., country-by-gender-by-context) for sadness.     

Mimicking emotions: how 3–12-month-old infants use the facial expressions and eyes of a model

While there is an extensive literature on the tendency to mimic emotional expressions in adults, it is unclear how this skill emerges and develops over time. Specifically, it is unclear whether infants mimic discrete emotion-related facial actions, whether their facial displays are moderated by contextual cues and whether infants’ emotional mimicry is constrained by developmental changes in the ability to discriminate emotions. We therefore investigate these questions using Baby-FACS to code infants’ facial displays and eye-movement tracking to examine infants’ looking times at facial expressions. Three-, 7-, and 12-month-old participants were exposed to dynamic facial expressions (joy, anger, fear, disgust, sadness) of a virtual model which either looked at the infant or had an averted gaze. Infants did not match emotion-specific facial actions shown by the model, but they produced valence-congruent facial responses to the distinct expressions. Furthermore, only the 7- and 12-month-olds displayed negative responses to the model’s negative expressions and they looked more at areas of the face recruiting facial actions involved in specific expressions. Our results suggest that valence-congruent expressions emerge in infancy during a period where the decoding of facial expressions becomes increasingly sensitive to the social signal value of emotions.     

The experience of emotions in everyday life

Abstract

A total of 47 employed adults were asked to record, in structured diaries, details of four episodes of emotion from the set that we regard as basic (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust) and also to note occurrences of other emotions not in this set. Subjects experienced an average of about one episode of consciously recognised emotion a day, and in rating intensities they said that 11% of episodes were as intense as they could imagine. Anger was the most frequent of the basic emotions, and disgust the least frequent. There were no significant differences in rates or intensities of basic emotions as a function of gender. We predicted 69% of these emotions correctly from the goal-relevant events that elicited them: happiness was typically caused by achievements, sadness by losses, anger by frustration, and fear by threat, but the causation of disgust was more difficult to identify. In 31% of episodes pairs of basic emotions occurred in mixtures. Positive emotions tended to help plans, while negative ones tended to hinder them.     

Emotional experiences in everyday life: A survey approach

As part of a telephone survey, respondents were asked to report the most recent situation that evoked strong emotional feelings in them and to describe the pattern of their reactions. The majority of the situations reported had evoked negative emotions. Most of the emotion-antecedent events are connected to relationships with family and friends or to work-related situations. Only happiness and anger are reported as relatively pure feeling states; most others are emotion blends, with anger/sadness and sadness/fear occurring most frequently. Facial expression changes as well as heart and muscle symptoms are reported as the most frequent reactions across all emotions, whereas other nonverbal and physiological reactions are more specific for particular emotions. By the use of factor analysis, response patterns across various components of emotional state, including affect control, are explored.The first author gratefully acknowledges support from the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk for a sabbatical leave to the University of California at Berkeley.     

Psychopathic traits and men’s anger response to interpersonal conflict: A pilot study

Psychopathy is associated with emotional dysfunction that impedes the experience of emotions such as fear and sadness and has been purported to facilitate violent behavior. However, findings relative to the association between psychopathy and anger have not been reliably substantiated. Theorists have proposed that psychopathy predisposes one to experience greater frustration and anger, whereas other experts have suggested that there is no convincing evidence for this assertion. In the present study, we tested the relationship between psychopathy subfactors and anger subsequent to conflict or non-conflict interactions. Sixty-eight collegiate-men completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and read vignettes depicting either a conflict or non-conflict scenario and were asked to imagine themselves in the situation. Following presentation of the vignettes, participants completed a lexical-decision-task assessing affective states. Results indicated that the psychopathy subfactors demonstrated strong differential associations, where Factor 1 showed negative and Factor 2 showed positive association with anger activation in response to interpersonal conflict. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of anger as a facilitator of violence in some psychopathic individuals.     

How Emotional Are Populists Really? Factors Explaining Emotional Appeals in the Communication of Political Parties

Are populists really more emotional than mainstream parties? The alleged link between populism and emotional communication has barely been subject to systematic empirical scrutiny. I use literature on populist communication and appraisal theory to generate expectations about which political parties use which emotional appeals. I test these claims by applying a novel emotional dictionary to a large set of text data including more than 700,000 press releases and tweets from three European countries. As expected, I find that populist parties use significantly more negative emotional appeals (anger, fear, disgust, sadness) and less positive emotional appeals (joy, enthusiasm, pride, hope) than mainstream parties. Furthermore, I find that political actors adapt the usage of emotional appeals to different purposes depending on the communication medium and the politicians' status level. This study entails important implications for the research on emotional appeals in politics and populist communication.     

Appraisal components,core relational themes,and the emotions

Abstract

This study experimentally tests the contributions of specific appraisals, considered at both molecular (appraisal components) and molar (core relational themes) levels of analysis, to the experience of four emotions (anger, guilt, fear/anxiety, and sadness) using a two-stage directed imagery task. In Stage 1, subjects imagined themselves in scenarios designed to evoke appraisals hypothesised to produce either anger or sadness. In Stage 2, the scenarios unfolded in time to produce a second manipulation designed to systematically evoke the appraisals hypothesised to produce each of the four emotions under study. The results provided substantial support for the theoretically specified appraisal-emotion relationships for anger, guilt, and fear/ anxiety. However, support for the predictions for sadness was weaker, partially due to ineffective manipulation of the relevant appraisals. Implications for the further development and testing of emotion theory are discussed.     

The Causal Organisation of Emotional Knowledge: A Developmental Study

Abstract

Using a theory of emotional understanding, the basis for distinguishing among happiness, anger, and sadness was investigated. Three and six-year-old children and adults predicted and explained people's emotional responses to different types of events. The events varied as to whether a person's goal was to attain or to avoid a state, whether the goal was achieved or not, who or what was responsible for success or failure, and whether the outcome was intentional or accidental. For all groups, the attainment and maintenance of goals was the primary focus of explanations for emotions and for the plans that followed emotions. A distinct set of features was used to infer and explain happiness as opposed to anger and sadness. Happiness was elicited by goal success and was followed by plans to maintain or enjoy current goal states. Anger and sadness were elicited by goal failure and were followed by plans to reinstate, replace, or forfeit goals. Anger occurred more frequently than sadness when an aversive rather than a loss state occurred, when an animate agent rather than a natural event caused a negative outcome, and when attention was focused on the cause rather than the consequence of goal failure. Two dimensions associated with anger changed as a function of age. First grade children, and adults were more likely than preschool children to predict anger in response to intentional harm, and their explanations for anger were more likely to refer to the agent or cause of goal failure. For all age groups, however, the majority of subjects responded to aversive situations with anger responses, independent of the causal conditions that produced the aversive state. The results therefore indicate that anger can be produced without intentional harm, but that intentional harm becomes an important dimension in attributing anger, especially as a function of development.     

Appraisal-emotion relationships in daily life

Using a daily process design, the present study examined relationships between momentary appraisals and emotional experience based on Smith and Lazarus' (1993) theory of emotions (1993). Nine times a day for 2 weeks, participants (N = 33, 23 women) recorded their momentary experience of 2 positive emotions (joy, love) and 4 negative emotions (anger, guilt, fear, sadness) and the core relational theme appraisal contents Smith and Lazarus hypothesized as corresponding to these emotions. A series of multilevel modeling analyses found that the hypothesized relationships between appraisal contents and these emotions were stronger than relationships between contents and other emotions, although appraisals were related to other emotions in many cases. Moreover, there were some individual differences in the strength of these relationships. These results suggest that there are no one-to-one relationships between appraisal contents and specific emotional experiences, and that specific emotions are associated with different appraisal contents, and that specific appraisals are associated with different emotions.