The influence of aging on preferences for sequences of mixed affective events

Research on preferences among sequences of mixed affective events has mostly used young adults as participants. Given differences due to aging in people's ability to regulate emotion, one could expect differences due to aging in preferences for different sequences. Study 1 demonstrated age‐related differences in how older adults (age 65 and older) versus young adults (age 18–25) choose to order mixed affective events that will occur over time. The tendency to choose sequences in which the final event is positive was greater among older adults versus young adults. And, more so than young adults, older adults preferred that the positive and negative events in a sequence be separated in time by a neutral event. Studies 2–3 investigated age‐related differences in overall retrospective evaluations of presented sequences of mixed affective events. In contrast to young adults, older adults' retrospective evaluations were not affected by: (1) whether the final trend of the sequence improved monotonically; (2) whether the last event in the sequence was positive; or (3) the temporal proximity of positive and negative events in the sequence. Results of Study 3 suggest that these age‐related differences are due to differences in older (vs. young) adults' ability to regulate emotion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What do the TOSCA guilt and shame scales really measure: Affect or action?

Psychologists have long used the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA) as an instrument for empirically distinguishing between trait emotions of guilt and shame. Recent assessments of the internal structure of the TOSCA guilt scale suggest that it may not measure the experience of guilt, but rather motivation to make amends for personal wrongdoing. In contrast, TOSCA shame may better assess the tendency to experience negative self-conscious affect. Previous research did not take into account that TOSCA guilt theoretically should only predict emotions in a situation of wrongdoing; we put this idea to the test in two studies. Experimental, but not control, participants received believable feedback that they had shown involuntary prejudice towards a member of a minority group. In both studies TOSCA guilt predicted reparative action after feedback was given, including expressing non-prejudiced views and recommending financial compensation to the minority group. However, TOSCA guilt had no relationship with feelings of guilt or shame after expressing prejudice. In contrast, TOSCA shame was a better predictor of feelings of guilt, shame and other self-critical emotions, but did not predict compensatory action. These findings suggest motivation rather than emotion as a mechanism behind past findings involving TOSCA guilt.     

Impact of compensatory secondary control on the recollection of emotions and the self in respect to past adversity1

Abstract: This study investigated a specific cognitive appraisal functioning as a form of compensatory secondary control that allows the individual to reevaluate positive aspects of adversity experienced in the past, and enhances emotional resources for further personal development through primary control. The impact of four kinds of present‐time appraisals on recollection of 11 types of emotions that 50 third‐year students initially experienced during preparations for university entrance examinations taken two and a half years earlier were examined. Cognitive appraisal of the experience of the adversity was found to function as compensatory secondary control. Positive emotions were overestimated whereas negative emotions were underestimated when the participants retrospectively evaluated their experience of exam preparation positively. Participants who regarded their exam preparations as a fruitful experience also positively evaluated the past struggle in that situation. These findings suggest a partial explanation for the role of cognitive appraisal in the directive, particularly analogous function of autobiographical memory in the individual's approach to immediate or future problems.     

Art and emotion in psychoanalysis

Freud's view that art satisfi es psychic needs has been taken to mean that art has its source in the unconscious and that it unifi es pleasure and reality. The author argues that there is a third point that Freud repeatedly emphasizes, which should not be overlooked, that art infl uences our emotions. The author examines what Freud means by this claim, in particular, his reading of Michelangelo's Moses. Freud's focus here on emotions as fundamental to subjective experience, as subject to regulation and as potentially healthy forms of communication serves to supplement and even challenge what he says in his theory of affect. The author concludes by making inferences about a contemporary psychoanalytic theory of affects: that it ought to be inclusive of science (more receptive to neurobiology and less bound to Freud) as well as art (preserving the focus on subjective experience, especially the processing of complex emotions), which is illustrated with the concept of mentalized affectivity.     

儿童和少年情绪障碍相关社会心理因素探讨

儿童和少年情绪障碍是一组由家庭环境因素、认知倾向和个性心理等多种社会心理因素共同作用、相互影响的疾病。家庭是一个系统,对儿童和少年的心理和行为的塑造存在影响。家庭环境和个性因素是以认知倾向为中介产生对情绪的影响,家庭环境因素又影响了认知倾向的形成和个性的发展。从以上三个方面进行探讨,旨在为儿童和少年情绪障碍者的心理干预提供科学的理论依据。     

The relationship between history of violent and criminal behavior and recognition of facial expression of emotions in men with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder

Social psychological research underscores the relation between aggression and emotion. Specifically, regulating negative affect requires the ability to appraise restraint‐producing cues, such as facial signs of anger, fear and other emotions. Individuals diagnosed with major mental disorders are more likely to have engaged in violent behavior than mentally healthy members of the same communities. We examined whether violent and criminal behavior in men with schizophrenia is related to emotion recognition abilities. Forty‐one men with schizophrenia underwent a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting mild and extreme intensities of happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral faces, balanced for gender and ethnicity. History of violence was assessed by the Life History of Aggression Scale and official records of arrests. Psychopathology was rated using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Criminal behavior was associated with poor emotion recognition, especially for fearful and angry facial expressions. History of aggression was also associated with more severe positive symptoms and less severe negative symptoms. These findings suggest that misinterpretation of social cues such as angry and fearful expression may lead to a failure in socialization and adaptive behavior in response to emotional situation, which may result in a higher number of criminal arrests. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–8, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A Taxonomy of Anger-Related Behaviors in Young Adults

In 2 studies, we investigated the occurrence of anger-related behaviors and their relationship to emotional, performance-related, and situational variables. In the first study, we constructed a comprehensive taxonomy of behaviors associated with anger, and we examined the occurrence of the resulting behavior categories as a function of several independent variables. A total of 8 distinct behavior categories were identified, 3 aggressive and 5 nonaggressive. Our results also demonstrated that fight (including both verbal and physical aggression) and flight behaviors occurred most frequently. Physical aggression, however, occurred most frequently in an inhibited form, in response to the emotion of anger (as compared to the emotion of irritation), and when the anger was intense. A second study was conducted to replicate and extend the findings of Study 1. The results suggest that the taxonomy, as derived in Study 1, is comprehensive and allows for a reliable categorization. Moreover, it appeared that fight and flight behaviors occurred most frequently if the target at whom one is angry was present. The following reduction rules were used: (a) responses that differed only in the order of the words were put together; (b) singular and plural items were joined; (c) responses that differed only in verbs such as “to be,” “to become” or “to do” were grouped together; (d) responses that differed only syntactically (verb, noun or adjective) were grouped together; (e) responses that differed only with respect to an article, a preposition, or a possessive word were grouped together; (f) and a few specific rules were used (e.g., yourself = myself; self = auto). The complete coding manual is available upon request from the first author. This number differed across proportions because it depended on the number of participants assigned to each of the experimental questionnaires. Our initial analyses contained a participant-specific random intercept, so as to take into account individual differences in the propensity to use each of the behavior categories. Inclusion of a random intercept appeared to yield a significant improvement in model fit for two of the eight behavior categories. However, because analyses with a random and with a fixed intercept yielded similar conclusions, we decided to select the most parsimonious model, namely the one without a random intercept. The total number of participant–performance–instrumentality combinations equals 504 (i.e., 84×6) because all 84 participants had to answer six questions.     

Affective Influences of Selective Attention

ABSTRACT— Processes of selective attention and emotion operate together in prioritizing thoughts and actions. Abundant evidence suggests that emotionally salient stimuli and affective states can determine how visual attention is allocated. However, the brain regions mediating the effects of attention and emotion include shared and reciprocally connected structures. This raises an intriguing question about a reciprocal effect: Does attention also influence emotional responses? Here we review a series of studies that show that indeed it does. The results indicate that attention has a negative affective impact for otherwise neutral visual stimuli (abstract patterns and unfamiliar faces) that must be ignored or otherwise inhibited during the performance of a task. Finding that selective attention has distinct affective consequences for visual stimuli represents a new, fundamental discovery about the relation between the two main systems of prioritization in the human brain.     

The Role of Emotion in Decision Making: A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

ABSTRACT— Decision making often occurs in the face of uncertainty about whether one's choices will lead to benefit or harm. The somatic-marker hypothesis is a neurobiological theory of how decisions are made in the face of uncertain outcome. This theory holds that such decisions are aided by emotions, in the form of bodily states, that are elicited during the deliberation of future consequences and that mark different options for behavior as being advantageous or disadvantageous. This process involves an interplay between neural systems that elicit emotional/bodily states and neural systems that map these emotional/bodily states.     

Positive Affect and Health

ABSTRACT— Negative affective styles such as anxiety, depression, and hostility have long been accepted as predictors of increased risk for illness and mortality. In contrast, positive affective styles have been relatively ignored in the health literature. Here we highlight consistent patterns of research associating trait positive affect (PA) and physical health. The evidence we review suggests an association of trait PA and lower morbidity and decreased symptoms and pain. PA is also associated with increased longevity among community-dwelling elderly. The association of PA and survival among those with serious illness is less clear and suggests the possibility that PA may be harmful in some situations. We conclude by raising conceptual and methodological reservations about this literature and suggesting directions for future research.