Social-Psychological Interventions for Intergroup Reconciliation: An Emotion Regulation Perspective

Intergroup reconciliation is a requirement for lasting peace in the context of intergroup conflicts. In this article, we offer an emotion regulation perspective on social-psychological interventions aimed at facilitating intergroup reconciliation. In the first section of the article, we conceptualize intergroup reconciliation as an emotion-regulation process involving positive affective change and offer a framework that integrates the emotion regulation and intergroup reconciliation literatures. In the sections that follow, we review social-psychological interventions that involve changes in beliefs and identity and assess their effects on specific intergroup emotions pertinent for intergroup reconciliation. More specifically, we focus our discussion on specific reconciliation-oriented intervention strategies and their relation to emotions pertinent for facilitating reconciliation, including intergroup hatred, anger, guilt, hope, and empathy. In the final section, we consider key implications and growth points for the field of intergroup reconciliation.     

The relationship between negative urgency and generalized anxiety disorder symptoms: the role of intolerance of negative emotions and intolerance of uncertainty

Background and Objectives: GAD symptoms are associated with greater negative urgency, a dimension of impulsivity defined as the tendency to act rashly when distressed. This study examined the degree to which intolerance of negative emotional states and intolerance of uncertainty account for the association between negative urgency and GAD symptoms. Design: An analysis of indirect effects evaluated whether intolerance of negative emotions and intolerance of uncertainty uniquely account for the association between negative urgency and GAD symptom severity. Methods: Undergraduate students (N?=?308) completed measures of GAD symptoms, trait anxiety, negative urgency, distress tolerance, and intolerance of uncertainty. Results: Greater symptoms of GAD, intolerance of negative emotional states, and intolerance of uncertainty were associated with greater negative urgency. There was an indirect relationship between negative urgency and GAD symptoms through intolerance of negative emotional states and intolerance of uncertainty even when controlling for trait anxiety. Intolerance of negative emotional states and intolerance of uncertainty each had an indirect relationship with GAD severity through negative urgency, suggesting possible bi-directional relations. Conclusions: Future studies should examine the role of intolerance of negative emotional states and intolerance of uncertainty in the impulsive behavior of individuals with GAD, and whether impulsive behavior reinforces these processes.     

Profiles of Peritraumatic Emotions

Researchers have identified peritraumatic emotions as important predictors of who will develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, such investigations have not examined full profiles of emotions, perhaps because of the typical emphasis on fear or other Criterion A2 emotions. Such an examination could help us identify which peritraumatic emotions are prominent, and how they relate to important posttrauma outcomes. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify distinct profiles of peritraumatic emotions and their correlates using a comprehensive survey of peri- and posttraumatic reactions. We conducted a latent profile analysis of peritraumatic emotions in 398 undergraduate students who reported a DSM–IV A1 trauma and then compared the resulting profiles on trauma type, PTSD, depression, and posttraumatic cognitions. Six distinct profiles emerged: 3 had consistently low, medium, or high levels across the range of emotions, with 3 others primarily characterized by low shame and guilt, high anger and guilt, and low guilt. These profiles significantly differed in terms of trauma type, PTSD, depression, and posttraumatic cognitions. In particular, profiles with high levels of anger, shame, and guilt were consistently related to overall worse functioning. Importantly, fear and associated emotions did not differentiate between profiles. These results have important implications for the phenomenology of posttrauma emotional reactions and strongly suggest that the clinical assessment of traumatic experiences go beyond fear-based conceptualizations.     

Epistemic perceptualism and neo-sentimentalist objections

Epistemic Perceptualists claim that emotions are sources of immediate defeasible justification for evaluative propositions that can (and do) sometimes ground undefeated immediately justified evaluative beliefs. For example, fear can constitute the justificatory ground for a belief that some object or event is dangerous. Despite its attractiveness, the view is apparently vulnerable to several objections. In this paper, I provide a limited defence of Epistemic Perceptualism by responding to a family of objections which all take as a premise a popular and attractive view in value theory – Neo-Sentimentalism – according to which values are analysed in terms of fitting emotions.     

负折扣现象:跨期决策中的自我-他人决策差异

负折扣现象作为一种违背时间折扣假定的现象越来越多地引起研究者关注。本文通过两种指标考察了为自己决策和为他人决策在负折扣现象上的差异。实验1运用二择一选择范式考察人们在为自己决策和为他人决策时对于何时发生负性事件的时间偏好。结果发现,相比较于为他人决策,为自己决策时被试更倾向于选择早些发生负性事件,即更容易产生负折扣现象。实验2运用测量时间折扣率的经典范式考察了人们在为自己决策和为他人决策时的时间折扣率。结果发现,为自己决策时比为他人决策时的时间折扣率更小,更容易出现负折扣率。总体结果表明,为自己决策比为他人决策更容易出现负折扣现象。从情绪卷入的角度看,我们推测,为自己决策时由于更多的预期负性情绪卷入,从而导致更容易产生负折扣现象。     

厌恶情绪与自杀行为的关系

自杀导致人类死亡的人数与日俱增,然而自杀的心理机制却并不清楚。最近研究发现,厌恶情绪是导致自杀的主要情绪因素,个体因为自身厌恶而走向自杀。厌恶情绪是一种对自己和他人排泄物等反感的基本情绪,促进个体远离毒性和疾病,从而产生“免疫行为”。许多心理问题来自于对周围人或事物的厌恶,有自杀行为的个体对自身极其厌恶,说明他们的厌恶情绪出现了问题。如同躯体免疫攻击自身一样,自身厌恶是自杀意念的关键因素,早年创伤是其根源,生活压力和精神疾病也参与厌恶诱发自杀意念。厌恶诱发自杀意念的神经基础与HPA轴和五羟色胺系统有关。未来研究可利用神经影像和电生理等神经科学技术,检验自杀行为的神经机制,探讨厌恶情绪影响自杀行为的心理和神经机制。     

大学生控制信念及其与人际信任的关系

以290名大学生为被试,采用量表法考察其控制信念和人际信任的特点及两变量之间的关系。结果表明,（1）被试的认知控制信念得分最高,情感控制最低,直接控制和间接控制信念得分居中;且控制信念得分存在显著性别和生源地差异,女生的认知控制和情感控制得分都高于男生,农村生源学生的间接控制信念得分显著低于城市生源学生;（2）被试人际信任得分较低,且不存在性别和生源地差异;（3）控制信念与人际信任的关系因被试性别和生源地的不同而有差异,对于女生和农村生源大学生来说,直接控制、认知控制信念得分越高,人际信任得分也越高;而对     

(Emotion-centered) problem-solving therapy: An update

Problem-solving therapy (PST) is a psychosocial intervention, typically considered to be a member of the cognitive and behaviour therapies family, and is based on a biopsychosocial, diathesis-stress model of psychopathology. The overarching goal of this approach is to promote the successful adoption of adaptive problem-solving attitudes and the effective implementation of certain behaviours as a means of coping with life stressors in order to attenuate the negative effects of such events on physical and mental well-being. Over the past several decades, in addition to accumulating strong support for its efficacy as a clinical intervention, similar to many other forms of psychotherapy, PST has undergone various evolutionary changes. Developed primarily as a more cognitive-based approach, due to the large body of literature in the field of affective neuroscience that underscores the importance of the impact of affect on problem solving, PST has evolved into emotion-centered problem-solving therapy (EC-PST). This article provides for a brief excursion into the historical roots of PST and why it has evolved into EC-PST, as well as providing support for its characterisation as a transdiagnostic approach. In addition, several meta-analyses that underscore its efficacy are described, as well as the most recent clinical guidelines that comprise EC-PST.     

Discrete emotions linking abusive supervision to employee intention and behavior

Drawing on appraisal theories of discrete emotions, we propose and test a model in which abusive supervision directed toward oneself and toward work unit peers (coworker abusive supervision) are interactively related to generalized feelings of shame, anger, and fear. These discrete emotions, in turn, tend to precipitate distinct responses that do not directly target the supervisor. We tested our hypotheses with a three-wave, time-lagged survey of 285 full-time workers from 55 work units. Consistent with our theorizing, supervisory abuse was associated with stronger feelings of shame while at work when the abusive supervision reported by one's coworkers was lower (vs. higher), whereas abuse had a stronger association with anger when coworkers also perceived relatively high levels of abuse. The distinct action tendencies associated with shame and anger are related to employees engaging in less voice behavior and more interpersonal deviance, respectively, and fear is related to higher turnover intentions. We discuss the study's implications for theory development concerning abusive supervision.     

When your heart is in your mouth: the effect of second language use on negative emotions

Research on bilingualism and emotions has shown stronger emotional responses in the native language (L1) compared to a foreign language. We investigated the potential of purposeful second language (L2) use as a means of decreasing the experience of psychological distress. Native Swedish speakers read and answered questions about negative and neutral texts in their L1 (Swedish) and their L2 (English) and were asked to rate their level of distress before or after the questions. The texts and associated questions were either written in the same (within-language), or different languages (cross-language). We found that within-language trials when the text was written in participants’ native language (Swedish–Swedish) resulted in an increase of distress, whilst cross-language trials (Swedish–English) resulted in a decrease of distress. This implies that purposeful second language use can diminish levels of distress experienced following a negative event encoded in one's first language.