Linking emotion regulation strategies to affective events and negative emotions at work

This study examined the use of specific forms of emotion regulation at work, utilizing Gross’s [Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology 2, 271–299] process-based framework of emotion regulation as a guiding structure. In addition to examining employee self-reported usage of these emotion regulation strategies, we assessed the types of discrete negative emotions and negative affective events associated with their use. Results demonstrated that employees reported using a wide variety of emotion regulation strategies, and that each strategy tended to align with a distinct set of discrete negative emotions and affective events. These findings support expanding the focus of emotion regulation strategies at work beyond the deep acting (i.e., changing feelings) and surface acting (i.e., changing expressions) distinction. The results also suggest that focusing on specific strategies, rather than categories of emotion regulation, could enhance understanding of how employees manage their emotions at work.     

Coping with Exposure to Violence: Relations to Emotional Symptoms and Aggression in Three Urban Samples

Relations among exposure to violence, coping, and adjustment were examined in three urban samples. In study 1, which took place in a southeastern city, children ages 6–16 (N = 35; M age = 10.7 years) completed measures of adjustment, exposure to violence, and coping with violence. In study 2, which took place in one southern Midwestern city and one Northeastern city, children ages 8–15 (N = 70; M age = 11.3 years) completed similar measures with the addition of a measure assessing normative beliefs about aggression. Results are in line with the pathologic adaptation model and provide preliminary evidence for two hypothesized pathways explaining the effects of exposure to violence on adjustment: a normalization pathway in which exposure leads to more aggression-supporting beliefs and in turn to greater aggression, and a distress pathway in which exposure leads to avoidant coping and in turn to emotional symptoms.     

Post-Divorce Maternal Disclosure and the Father–Adolescent Relationship: Adolescent Emotional Autonomy and Inter-Reactivity as Moderators

Utilizing longitudinal data from a project that examined the post-divorce lives of mothers and adolescents, we addressed two questions: (a) Does exposure to negative maternal disclosure about the ex-husband/father impact adolescents’ perceptions of the father-adolescent relationship? and (b) Are adolescents with low emotional autonomy and high emotional inter-reactivity especially vulnerable? Participants were 154 adolescents, who ranged in age from 12 to 18 years at wave two. Although there was no significant bivariate association between maternal negative disclosure about the father and father-adolescent relationship quality, boys’ level of emotional autonomy and emotional inter-reactivity moderated the association between maternal negative disclosure and the father–adolescent relationship. As hypothesized, boys with lower levels of emotional autonomy and higher levels of emotional inter-reactivity vis-à-vis their mothers perceived a lower quality of relationship with their father when their mother frequently disclosed negatively about the ex-husband/father. Research and applied implications are discussed.     

Systema Temporis: A time-based dimensional framework for consciousness and cognition

This study uses a combined categorical-dimensional approach to depict a hierarchical framework for consciousness similar to, and contiguous with, factorial models of cognition (cf., intelligence). On the basis of the longstanding definition of time consciousness, the analysis employs a dimension of temporal extension, in the same manner that psychology has temporally organised memory (i.e., short-term, long-term, and long-lasting memories). By defining temporal extension in terms of the structure of time perception at short timescales (<100 s), memory and time consciousness are proposed to fit along the same logarithmic dimension. This suggests that different forms of time consciousness (e.g., experience, wakefulness, and self-consciousness) are embedded within, or supported by, the ascending timescales of different modes of memory (i.e., short-term, long-term, etc.). A secondary dimension is also proposed to integrate higher-order forms of consciousness/emotion and memory/cognition. The resulting two-dimensional structure accords with existing theories of cognitive and emotional intelligence.     

A generic and efficient emotion-driven approach toward personalized assessment and adaptation in serious games

Emotions have a major role in the player-game interaction. In serious games playing contexts, real-time assessment of the player’s emotional state is crucially important to enable an emotion-driven adaptation during gameplay. In addition, a personalized assessment and adaptation based on the player's characteristics remains a challenge for serious games designers. This paper presents a generic and efficient emotion-driven approach for personalized assessment and adaptation in serious games, in which two main methods and their algorithms are proposed. The first one is a method for assessing, in real time, the player's emotion taking into account the personality type and the playing style of the player. The second one is an emotion-driven personalized adaptation method based on Markov modeling of dependency between the serious game events and the change in the player's emotional state. Therefore, the proposed approach has been evaluated by playing an affective vs. non-affective version of a serious game that we have developed to illustrate the applicability of the above-mentioned methods. The overall results showed that owing to our approach, a serious game become able to enhance its adaptivity toward playing outcomes and improve its overall playability.     

‘Close,not close’: Migrant artists negotiating transnational mother-daughter intimacies

The feminisation of migration is contributing to growing awareness of the transformation of familial subjectivities and emotional terrains as a result of transnational movements. The emotional lives and identities of women have often been at the forefront of these investigations. However, the female roles investigated are largely limited to those of mothers and domestic workers. In this paper, we explore how another gendered identity has also been transformed by international migration: that of the daughter. We avoid repeating analyses of the gendered experiences of domestic workers by drawing on an analysis of research conducted with young female artists who are first or second-generation migrants. Reflecting on research interviews and examples of their work exploring mother-daughter relationships, we consider how independently mobile young women navigate the emotional and geographic distances in their intimate relationships with their mothers, both within and beyond their artistic works. We argue that the navigation of ‘close, not close’ relationships with their mothers shapes their gendered subjectivities by informing the social and cultural identities they enact across the distances of generations on the one hand, and of nations, on the other.     

The Role of Dyadic Coping on the Marital and Emotional Adjustment of Couples With Infertility

Infertility is a challenging experience, affecting individual and couples’ adjustment. However, the way the members of the couple support each other may affect the experience of infertility and their adjustment. This study aimed to investigate the role of dyadic coping by oneself and by the partner in the association between the impact of infertility and dyadic and emotional adjustment (anxiety and depression) to infertility. In this cross‐sectional study, a total of 134 participants (67 couples with infertility) completed self‐report questionnaires assessing infertility‐related stress, dyadic coping, dyadic adjustment, and depression and anxiety symptoms. A path analysis examined the direct and indirect effects between the impact of infertility in one's life and dyadic and emotional adjustment. There is an indirect effect of the impact of infertility in one's life on dyadic adjustment through men's perceived dyadic coping efforts employed by the self (dyadic coping by oneself) and women's perceived dyadic coping efforts of the partner (dyadic coping by the partner). Regarding the emotional adjustment of infertile couples, infertility stress impact had an indirect effect only on depressive symptoms through men's dyadic coping by oneself. The results highlight the importance of men's dyadic coping strategies for the marital adjustment of couples as well as for men's emotional adjustment. Findings emphasize the importance of involving men in the fertility treatment process, reinforcing the dyadic nature of infertility processes.     

When the “U” is not Inverted: Trajectories of Expressed Emotional Arousal Predict Relationship Satisfaction

Maladaptive emotional reactivity and dysfunctional communication during couple conflict are both destructive to couple functioning, and observational research has elucidated how conflict escalates. However, much of the evidence is based on measures that combine content (i.e., what was said) and the emotion with which it was said, which are then examined using sequential analyses. Despite the general presumptions about underlying emotional reactivity and escalation in negative emotions as part of relationship distress and deterioration, little empirical data are available that directly examine these continuous shifts in emotions. The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal associations between relationship satisfaction and trajectories of change in vocally expressed emotional arousal during couple conflict in 62 couples who participated in a relationship education program. Contrary to expectations and patterns found in distressed couples, trajectories followed a U‐shape rather than an inverted U‐shape curve, with steeper and more persistent decreases in emotional arousal predicting more stable relationship satisfaction over time. In addition, there were within‐couple effects. These results suggest that early signs for relationship deterioration may be less in the form of overt escalation as would be seen in distressed couples. Instead, couples who subsequently deteriorate more are less effective in calming emotional arousal. They also are less able to remain at lower emotional arousal. It is possible that the more pronounced escalation toward the end of the conversation in more at‐risk couples is a precursor of the greater escalation patterns seen in distressed couples; this should be examined empirically. Limitations and implications are discussed.