Associations of coping and appraisal styles with emotion regulation during preadolescence

We investigated the associations of appraisal and coping styles with emotion regulation in a community sample of preadolescents (N = 196, 9-12 years of age), with appraisal, coping styles, and emotion regulation measured at a single time point. In a previous study, we identified five frustration and four anxiety emotion regulation profiles based on children’s physiological, behavioral, and self-reported reactions to emotion-eliciting tasks. In this study, preadolescents’ self-reported appraisal and coping styles were associated with those emotion regulation profiles. Overall, findings revealed that children who were more effective at regulating their emotions during the emotion-eliciting tasks had higher levels of positive appraisal and active coping when dealing with their own problems. Conversely, children who regulated their emotions less effectively had higher levels of threat appraisal and avoidant coping.     

Antecedents of everyday positive emotions: An experience sampling analysis

The focus of this study is on everyday positive emotions and their relations to critical appraisal antecedents. Following from classical appraisal theory and Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, two research questions were addressed, namely whether cognitive appraisals of control and value were related to discrete positive emotions in everyday situations and whether control and value antecedents interact in predicting these emotions. We further investigated whether control/value and positive emotion relations changed as a function of situational factors (achievement vs. non-achievement settings). 50 university freshmen (78% female) were assessed by use of the experience sampling method for a period of 1 week, with intraindividual analyses conducted using a multilevel, idiographic approach. Consistent with our hypotheses, the emotions of enjoyment, pride, and contentment were positively related to control and value appraisals. Further, control and value interacted to predict these positive emotions. The strength of appraisal/positive emotion relations was equivalent across achievement vs. non-achievement settings. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Another Search for the “Hot” Cognitions: Appraisal, Irrational Beliefs, Attributions, and Their Relation to Emotion

One study examined the hypothesized status of appraisal and irrational beliefs relative to attributions, as proximal antecedents of emotion. In our study, which looked at 4 pairs of functional and dysfunctional negative emotions (i.e., concern/anxiety, sadness/depression, remorse/guilt, annoyance/anger), undergraduates (N = 120) reported on their attributions, appraisal, irrational beliefs, and emotions during past encounters associated with various negative events. Congruent with both Smith and Lazarus' (1993) appraisal theory and Ellis' (1994) cognitive theory of emotion, the results of this study indicate that the emotions (both functional and dysfunctional negative emotions) were more directly associated with appraisal and with irrational beliefs (dysfunctional negative emotions only) than they were with attributions. Also, irrational beliefs were strongly associated with appraisal; while demandingness (DEM) was associated more with primary appraisal, awfulizing/catastrophizing, low frustration tolerance, and global evaluation of human worth (including self-downing) were associated more with secondary appraisal. Dysfunctional emotions seem to involve primary appraisal associated with DEM while functional emotions involve primary appraisal associated with preferences. These findings lend to support the status of appraisal and irrational beliefs as the proximal cognitive antecedents of emotion and the status of irrational beliefs as a differencing factor between functional and dysfunctional emotions.     

Teachers’ emotions and emotion management: integrating emotion regulation theory with emotional labor research

While the similarities between emotion regulation (Gross in J Personal Soc Psychol 74:224–237, 1998a) and emotional labor (Hochschild in The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983) have been theoretically discussed, empirical research on their relation is lacking. We examined the relations between the two constructs as well as their relations with teachers’ discrete emotions in a sample of 189 secondary school teachers. The results showed that reappraisal correlated positively with deep acting, whereas suppression correlated positively with surface acting. The findings further suggest that reappraisal and deep acting are linked to experiencing positive emotions, whereas suppression and surface acting are linked to experiencing negative emotions. However, there also were some differences in how emotion regulation and emotional labor were related to teachers’ discrete emotional experiences. Specifically, reappraisal and deep acting strategies were positively related to enjoyment; in addition, deep acting was negatively related to negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and frustration. By contrast, suppression and surface acting strategies were positively associated with negative emotions (i.e., suppression with anxiety; surface acting with anxiety, anger, and frustration), and surface acting was negatively associated with the positive emotion enjoyment. Implications for integrating research on teachers’ emotion regulation and emotional labor are discussed.     

Emotional context, maternal behavior and emotion regulation

This study investigated the importance of emotion-eliciting context (positive and negative) and mother's behaviors (constrained and involved) on toddlers’ emotion regulation behavioral strategies, emotional expressiveness and intensity, during three episodes eliciting fear, frustration/anger and positive affect. Fifty-five children between 18 and 26 months of age and their mothers participated in the study. Toddlers’ regulatory strategies varied as function of emotion-eliciting context (children exhibited behavioral strategies more frequently during positive affect and frustration/anger episodes and less frequently during fear episodes) and maternal involvement. Toddlers’ expression of emotion varied as function of emotion-eliciting context (children exhibited more emotional expressions, both negative and positive during fear and frustration/anger episodes compared to positive affect episodes). Toddlers’ expression of emotion was not strongly related to maternal involvement, however, the intensity of emotional expression was related to the interaction of context and maternal involvement.     

Socialization of Discrete Negative Emotions: Gender Differences and Links with Psychological Distress

On the basis of Malatesta-Magai's model (Magai, 1996) of emotion socialization, parental contingent responses to expressed emotion in children were expected to facilitate (e.g., Reward, Magnify) or inhibit (e.g., Override, Neglect, Punish) the expression of various discrete emotions. In this study, retrospective reports of parental emotion socialization in childhood were reported by 322 young adult participants. Perceptions of 3 negative emotions—sadness, anger, and fear—were assessed. Using a retrospective, self-report measure, gender-based emotion socialization patterns were found across all 3 emotions, which suggests that the gender of both the parent and child influences the way in which different emotions are socialized. Young adults reported, in recalling their childhood, that mothers were more typically involved in socializing negative emotions than were fathers. For anger, mothers reportedly were the more active emotion socializing agents; they used Reward, Magnify, and Override more than did fathers. For sadness and fear, parents reportedly modified the way in which they socialized these emotions based on the gender of their child. For example, fathers reportedly rewarded girls and punished boys for expressing sadness and fear. A second aim of this study was to examine links between emotion socialization strategies and psychological distress. Perceptions of the parental emotion socializing responses of Punish and Neglect were positively correlated with psychological distress in young adults. Although certain aspects of the methodology limit conclusions, the findings of this study suggest that emotion socialization differs in girls and boys, and these differences are consistent with models that link specific parental emotion socialization approaches (e.g., punishment of negative emotions) to psychopathology—a question that deserves further exploration.     

Emotion Appraisal and Anxiety Symptomatology in a University Sample

Current conceptualizations for anxiety disorders focus heavily on cognitive and behavioral aspects of anxiety and address other emotions to a far lesser extent. Studies have demonstrated that negative appraisals of anxiety and fear (e.g., anxiety sensitivity) are elevated in each of the anxiety disorders and depressive disorders. Much less is known about how the appraisal of other emotions is related to anxiety disorder symptom presentation. The current study examines the appraisal of specific aversive emotions in relation to anxiety symptomatology. Undergraduate university students (N = 530) completed measures of specific anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as a measure of emotional appraisal. A maximum likelihood estimated multivariate regression model was used to examine the unique relationships between emotional appraisal and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that anxiety symptoms varied in their relationships with emotional appraisal. Each symptom group was highly related to fear of appraisals of anxiety; however, some anxiety symptoms were also related to fear of other emotional states, including guilt, sadness, disgust, lust, and embarrassment. Understanding the full range of appraisals of emotional experiences in anxiety conditions may help inform conceptualizations, and potentially treatments, by guiding the focus to the feared emotional states of the individual. The present study helps to clarify some of the relationships between emotion appraisal and anxiety symptoms.     

Changes in Emotions Over the Course of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and the Moderating Role of Depression,Anxiety, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Evidence-based borderline personality disorder (BPD) treatments such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) emphasize the acquisition and use of strategies to down regulate negative emotion. However, little research examines whether specific emotions change during DBT. Further, it is unclear if BPD-relevant comorbidities that involve heightened emotion—namely, depression, anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—moderate these outcomes. This study investigated which specific emotions (hostility/anger, fear, shame/guilt, and sadness) decrease during DBT, and whether comorbid depression, anxiety disorders, and PTSD moderate these outcomes. Individuals with BPD (N = 101) completed 6 months of standard DBT and provided measurements of specific emotions at every session and at pre-, mid-, and posttreatment. Generalized estimating equations revealed moderate effect-sized reductions in anger at major assessment time points. Anxiety disorders and PTSD moderated the effect of time on fear, shame, and guilt. PTSD also moderated the effect of time on sadness. For all moderating effects, individuals with the comorbidity exhibited greater reductions than those without. These findings corroborate that DBT reduces several specific emotions, and comorbid PTSD and anxiety disorders may facilitate this effect for fear, shame/guilt, and sadness (clinical trial registration number = NCT03123198).     

Fear and perceived uncontrollability of emotion: Evaluating the unique contribution of emotion appraisal variables to prediction of worry and generalised anxiety disorder

Novel theoretical frameworks place the symptom profile of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) within the context of dysfunctional emotional processes. It is suggested that fear and intolerance of emotions exacerbate subjective distress and motivate the use of maladaptive coping strategies, such as worry. To date, studies evaluating these models have suffered two key limitations. Firstly, few studies have involved treatment-seeking samples, and secondly, none have evaluated the unique variance attributable to emotion appraisal variables above and beyond previously established predictors of worry and GAD. The present study begins to address these limitations by assessing the contribution of fear and perceived uncontrollability of emotions in predicting worry and clinical GAD status after controlling for variance attributable to depressive symptoms, meta-cognitive beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty, and perceptions of external threat. Supporting current models, results showed that perceived control over emotional reactions was a unique predictor of GAD diagnostic status and both clinical and non-clinical worry.     

Social anxiety and emotion regulation in daily life: spillover effects on positive and negative social events

To minimize the possibility of scrutiny, people with social anxiety difficulties exert great effort to manage their emotions, particularly during social interactions. We examined how the use of two emotion regulation strategies, emotion suppression and cognitive reappraisal, predict the generation of emotions and social events in daily life. Over 14 consecutive days, 89 participants completed daily diary entries on emotions, positive and negative social events, and their regulation of emotions. Using multilevel modeling, we found that when people high in social anxiety relied more on positive emotion suppression, they reported fewer positive social events and less positive emotion on the subsequent day. In contrast, people low in social anxiety reported fewer negative social events on days subsequent to using cognitive reappraisal to reduce distress; the use of cognitive reappraisal did not influence the daily lives of people high in social anxiety. Our findings support theories of emotion regulation difficulties associated with social anxiety. In particular, for people high in social anxiety, maladaptive strategy use contributed to diminished reward responsiveness.     

Frequency, determinants, and consequences of different drivers’ emotions: An on-the-road study using self-reports, (observed) behaviour, and physiology

In the present study, the frequency, determinants and consequences of three relevant emotions in traffic were investigated. Based on appraisal theory, it was predicted that the combination of three appraisal components (goal congruence, blame and threat) affects the occurrence of anger, anxiety and happiness. Participants (n = 44) filled in a questionnaire containing background and personality variables, and performed a test drive in an instrumented car. During the drive, speed and heart rate were registered and the traffic environment was recorded on video. Participants verbally reported scores for emotions and perceived risk. The most frequently occurring emotion was anxiety, followed by anger and happiness. Emotions while driving were related to emotional traits. Emotions while driving were also related to traffic events: anger and anxiety were both associated with goal incongruent events, and happiness with goal congruent events. Anger was mostly associated with other-blame and anxiety with situation-blame. Anger was mostly associated with events affecting impeded progress, and anxiety with events affecting safety. Anxiety, but not anger or happiness, was associated with increased perceived risk and with increased heart rate. Participants who reported anger drove faster and exceeded the speed limit more often on a 100 km/road section than participants who did not report anger. These and other results are discussed in terms of appraisal theory and state-trait differences in emotion.     

The dynamics of threat and challenge appraisals prior to stressful achievement events

Research on cognitive appraisal of stressful achievement events has emphasized threat appraisals and anxiety. The present research also focused on challenge and positive emotion. Study 1 used hypothetical scenarios of stressful events. Study 2 explored temporal pattems of appraisal and emotion prior to an exam. Compared with threat appraisals, trait and state challenge appraisals were associated with more confident coping expectancies, lower perceptions of threat, higher positive emotion, and more beneficial perceptions of the effects of appraisal and emotion on performance. Beneficial perceptions of state appraisals were associated with higher exam performance. These findings were interpreted in the context of theoretical perspectives on the cognitive appraisal of stressful events and the adaptive functions of challenge and positive emotion.     

The effect of self- and interpersonal emotion regulation on athletes’ anxiety and goal achievement in competition

ObjectivesThere exists a wealth of evidence that athletes must regulate their emotions for optimal performance and wellbeing. In addition to athletes’ attempts to regulate their own emotions, they may also attempt to regulate each other’s emotions (interpersonal emotion regulation). Though self- and interpersonal emotion regulation likely co-occur, previous research has not explored how these strategies concurrently impact athletes’ emotions and performance outcomes. In the current study, we examined whether athletes’ emotional self-regulation and the receipt of interpersonal emotion regulation from their teammates were related to their anxiety and goal achievement during competition.DesignQuantitative, cross-sectional retrospective survey design.MethodData were gathered following sport competitions from 509 participants from 50 interdependent sport teams from Canada and the UK (M_age = 19.0, SD = 3.1).ResultsAnalysis of the data using structural equation modeling revealed that after accounting for pre-competition anxiety, received interpersonal emotion regulation was not associated with anxiety during competition, though affect-worsening self-regulation was positively associated with anxiety during competition. Received interpersonal emotion regulation was also not associated with goal achievement, yet affect-improving and affect-worsening self-regulation were associated with goal achievement. Nevertheless, when the influence of emotional self-regulation on anxiety and goal achievement was set to zero, affect-improving and affect-worsening interpersonal emotion regulation were associated with anxiety during competition and affect-improving interpersonal emotion regulation was associated with goal achievement.ConclusionsThese data can be interpreted as evidence that emotion regulation actions between teammates are important for anxiety and performance outcomes, albeit this effect is attenuated in the presence of athletes’ own emotional self-regulation. These results extend the extant research on self- and interpersonal emotion regulation in sport, and in line with these observations, we highlight a number of future research opportunities for researchers examining emotion regulation in performance contexts.     

Remembering the silver lining: Reappraisal and positive bias in memory for emotion

Reappraisal and distraction, unlike suppression, are known to decrease the intensity of negative emotion in the short term. Little is known about long-term characteristics associated with emotion regulation strategies, however. In a longitudinal study, we examined the relation between the strategies people reported using to regulate emotions during a stressful situation and their later memory for their emotions. Students in Italy rated the intensity of positive and negative emotions they were experiencing as they prepared for their high school exit exam. They also rated the extent to which they were regulating emotion using reappraisal, distraction, and suppression. Six weeks later, students recalled their pre-exam emotions. The more students reported engaging in reappraisal before the exam, the more they overestimated positive emotion and underestimated negative emotion when recalling their experience. The association between reported reappraisal and memory bias was partially mediated by positive changes over time in students’ appraisals of the exam preparation experience. Reports of engaging in distraction and suppression were not associated with memory bias. Because remembered emotion guides future choices, these findings suggest that reappraisal is a highly adaptive strategy for coping with stressful situations, not only in the short run, but also in the long run.     

Remembering the silver lining: reappraisal and positive bias in memory for emotion

Reappraisal and distraction, unlike suppression, are known to decrease the intensity of negative emotion in the short term. Little is known about long-term characteristics associated with emotion regulation strategies, however. In a longitudinal study, we examined the relation between the strategies people reported using to regulate emotions during a stressful situation and their later memory for their emotions. Students in Italy rated the intensity of positive and negative emotions they were experiencing as they prepared for their high school exit exam. They also rated the extent to which they were regulating emotion using reappraisal, distraction, and suppression. Six weeks later, students recalled their pre-exam emotions. The more students reported engaging in reappraisal before the exam, the more they overestimated positive emotion and underestimated negative emotion when recalling their experience. The association between reported reappraisal and memory bias was partially mediated by positive changes over time in students' appraisals of the exam preparation experience. Reports of engaging in distraction and suppression were not associated with memory bias. Because remembered emotion guides future choices, these findings suggest that reappraisal is a highly adaptive strategy for coping with stressful situations, not only in the short run, but also in the long run.     

社交焦虑大学生情绪调节灵活性：情绪内容对策略选择和使用的影响

尽管社交焦虑个体被认为存在情绪调节灵活性的不足,但至今尚不清楚这种不足究竟在于难以灵活选择策略,还是难以灵活使用策略,抑或二者兼有？对此,本研究采用情绪调节策略选择任务考察了37名高社交焦虑大学生和29名低社交焦虑大学生在面对社交-非社交情绪图片时对认知重评-回避策略的选择模式和使用效果。结果发现：在面对社交情绪图片时,高社交焦虑被试比低社交焦虑被试更少选择认知重评,而更多选择回避;在面对非社交情绪图片时,两组被试对两种策略的选择模式无显著差异。同时,无论面对社交还是非社交情绪图片,两组被试对两种策略的使用效果也无显著差异。以上结果表明,相比低社交焦虑个体,高社交焦虑个体只有在面对社交情绪刺激时才存在情绪调节灵活性的不足,且这种不足主要在于难以灵活选择策略,而非难以灵活使用策略。     

Similar patterns of age-related differences in emotion recognition from speech and music

Young and old adults’ ability to recognize emotions from vocal expressions and music performances was compared. The stimuli consisted of (a) acted speech (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness; each posed with both weak and strong emotion intensity), (b) synthesized speech (anger, fear, happiness, and sadness), and (c) short melodies played on the electric guitar (anger, fear, happiness, and sadness; each played with both weak and strong emotion intensity). The listeners’ recognition of discrete emotions and emotion intensity was assessed and the recognition rates were controlled for various response biases. Results showed emotion-specific age-related differences in recognition accuracy. Old adults consistently received significantly lower recognition rates for negative, but not for positive, emotions for both speech and music stimuli. Some age-related differences were also evident in the listeners’ ratings of emotion intensity. The results show the importance of considering individual emotions in studies on age-related differences in emotion recognition.     

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.     

Emotional processing in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex

Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal cognitive and ventral-rostral affective subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear or anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC and mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, whereas ventral-rostral portions of the ACC and mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.