Fear, Anger, and Risk Preference Reversals: An Experimental Study on a Chinese Sample.

PubMed

She, Shengxiang; Eimontaite, Iveta; Zhang, Dangli; Sun, Yan

2017-01-01

Fear and anger are basic emotions of the same valence which differ in terms of their certainty and control dimensions according to the Appraisal Tendency Framework, a theory addressing the relationship between specific emotions, and judgments and choices. Past research based on the Appraisal Theory revealed contradictory results for risky choice decision-making. However, these conclusions were drawn from Western samples (e.g., North American). Considering potential cultural differences, the present study aims to investigate whether the Appraisal Tendency hypothesis yields the same results in a Chinese sample. Our first study explores how dispositional fear and anger influence risk preferences through a classic virtual "Asia Disease Problem" task and the second study investigates how induced fear and anger influence risk preferences through an incentive-compatible task. Consistent with previous research, our results reveal that induced fear and anger have differential effects on risky decisions: angry participants prefer the risk-seeking option, whereas fearful participants prefer a risk-averse option. However, we find no associations between dispositional fear (or anger) and risky decisions.

Fear, Anger, and Risk Preference Reversals: An Experimental Study on a Chinese Sample

PubMed Central

She, Shengxiang; Eimontaite, Iveta; Zhang, Dangli; Sun, Yan

2017-01-01

Fear and anger are basic emotions of the same valence which differ in terms of their certainty and control dimensions according to the Appraisal Tendency Framework, a theory addressing the relationship between specific emotions, and judgments and choices. Past research based on the Appraisal Theory revealed contradictory results for risky choice decision-making. However, these conclusions were drawn from Western samples (e.g., North American). Considering potential cultural differences, the present study aims to investigate whether the Appraisal Tendency hypothesis yields the same results in a Chinese sample. Our first study explores how dispositional fear and anger influence risk preferences through a classic virtual “Asia Disease Problem” task and the second study investigates how induced fear and anger influence risk preferences through an incentive-compatible task. Consistent with previous research, our results reveal that induced fear and anger have differential effects on risky decisions: angry participants prefer the risk-seeking option, whereas fearful participants prefer a risk-averse option. However, we find no associations between dispositional fear (or anger) and risky decisions. PMID:28871232

Facial Expressions and Ability to Recognize Emotions From Eyes or Mouth in Children

PubMed Central

Guarnera, Maria; Hichy, Zira; Cascio, Maura I.; Carrubba, Stefano

2015-01-01

This research aims to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust and neutral emotions from facial information. By investigating children’s performance in detecting these emotions from a specific face region, we were interested to know whether children would show differences in recognizing these expressions from the upper or lower face, and if any difference between specific facial regions depended on the emotion in question. For this purpose, a group of 6-7 year-old children was selected. Participants were asked to recognize emotions by using a labeling task with three stimulus types (region of the eyes, of the mouth, and full face). The findings seem to indicate that children correctly recognize basic facial expressions when pictures represent the whole face, except for a neutral expression, which was recognized from the mouth, and sadness, which was recognized from the eyes. Children are also able to identify anger from the eyes as well as from the whole face. With respect to gender differences, there is no female advantage in emotional recognition. The results indicate a significant interaction ‘gender x face region’ only for anger and neutral emotions. PMID:27247651

Patterns of Emotional Transmission in Japanese Young People's Text-Based Communication in Four Basic Emotional Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kato, Yuuki; Kato, Shogo; Scott, Douglass J.; Sato, Kouki

2010-01-01

Text-based communication, such as a mobile phone email, is the essential communication tool for Japanese youth. In this paper, the authors conducted a paper-based survey in order to investigate what kind of patterns of emotional transmission are used when composing text-based messages to four kinds of emotional scenarios (i.e. joy, sadness, anger,…

Opioid system and human emotions.

PubMed

Nummenmaa, Lauri; Tuominen, Lauri

2017-04-10

Emotions are states of vigilant readiness that guide human and animal behaviour during survival-salient situations. Categorical models of emotions posit neurally and physiologically distinct basic human emotions (anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness and surprise) that govern different survival functions. Opioid receptors are expressed abundantly in the mammalian emotion circuit, and the opioid system modulates a variety of functions related to arousal and motivation. Yet, its specific contribution to different basic emotions has remained poorly understood. Here, we review how the endogenous opioid system and particularly the μ receptor contribute to emotional processing in humans. Activation of the endogenous opioid system is consistently associated with both pleasant and unpleasant emotions. In general, exogenous opioid agonists facilitate approach-oriented emotions (anger, pleasure) and inhibit avoidance-oriented emotions (fear, sadness). Opioids also modulate social bonding and affiliative behaviour, and prolonged opioid abuse may render both social bonding and emotion recognition circuits dysfunctional. However, there is no clear evidence that the opioid system is able to affect the emotions associated with surprise and disgust. Taken together, the opioid systems contribute to a wide array of positive and negative emotions through their general ability to modulate the approach versus avoidance motivation associated with specific emotions. Because of the protective effects of opioid system-mediated prosociality and positive mood, the opioid system may constitute an important factor contributing to psychological and psychosomatic resilience. © 2017 The British Pharmacological Society.

Discrete Neural Correlates for the Recognition of Negative Emotions: Insights from Frontotemporal Dementia

PubMed Central

Kumfor, Fiona; Irish, Muireann; Hodges, John R.; Piguet, Olivier

2013-01-01

Patients with frontotemporal dementia have pervasive changes in emotion recognition and social cognition, yet the neural changes underlying these emotion processing deficits remain unclear. The multimodal system model of emotion proposes that basic emotions are dependent on distinct brain regions, which undergo significant pathological changes in frontotemporal dementia. As such, this syndrome may provide important insight into the impact of neural network degeneration upon the innate ability to recognise emotions. This study used voxel-based morphometry to identify discrete neural correlates involved in the recognition of basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and happiness) in frontotemporal dementia. Forty frontotemporal dementia patients (18 behavioural-variant, 11 semantic dementia, 11 progressive nonfluent aphasia) and 27 healthy controls were tested on two facial emotion recognition tasks: The Ekman 60 and Ekman Caricatures. Although each frontotemporal dementia group showed impaired recognition of negative emotions, distinct associations between emotion-specific task performance and changes in grey matter intensity emerged. Fear recognition was associated with the right amygdala; disgust recognition with the left insula; anger recognition with the left middle and superior temporal gyrus; and sadness recognition with the left subcallosal cingulate, indicating that discrete neural substrates are necessary for emotion recognition in frontotemporal dementia. The erosion of emotion-specific neural networks in neurodegenerative disorders may produce distinct profiles of performance that are relevant to understanding the neurobiological basis of emotion processing. PMID:23805313

Emotion perception accuracy and bias in face-to-face versus cyberbullying.

PubMed

Ciucci, Enrica; Baroncelli, Andrea; Nowicki, Stephen

2014-01-01

The authors investigated the association of traditional and cyber forms of bullying and victimization with emotion perception accuracy and emotion perception bias. Four basic emotions were considered (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear); 526 middle school students (280 females; M age = 12.58 years, SD = 1.16 years) were recruited, and emotionality was controlled. Results indicated no significant findings for girls. Boys with higher levels of traditional bullying did not show any deficit in perception accuracy of emotions, but they were prone to identify happiness and fear in faces when a different emotion was expressed; in addition, male cyberbullying was related to greater accuracy in recognizing fear. In terms of the victims, cyber victims had a global problem in recognizing emotions and a specific problem in processing anger and fear. It was concluded that emotion perception accuracy and bias were associated with bullying and victimization for boys not only in traditional settings but also in the electronic ones. Implications of these findings for possible intervention are discussed.

Assessing Anger Expression: Construct Validity of Three Emotion Expression-Related Measures

PubMed Central

Jasinski, Matthew J.; Lumley, Mark A.; Latsch, Deborah V.; Schuster, Erik; Kinner, Ellen; Burns, John W.

2016-01-01

Self-report measures of emotional expression are common, but their validity to predict objective emotional expression, particularly of anger, is unclear. We tested the validity of the Anger Expression Inventory (AEI; Spielberger et al., 1985)), Emotional Approach Coping Scale (EAC; Stanton, Kirk, Cameron & Danoff-Burg, 2000), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) to predict objective anger expression in 95 adults with chronic back pain. Participants attempted to solve a difficult computer maze by following the directions of a confederate who treated them rudely and unjustly. Participants then expressed their feelings for 4 minutes. Blinded raters coded the videos for anger expression, and a software program analyzed expression transcripts for anger-related words. Analyses related each questionnaire to anger expression. The AEI anger-out scale predicted greater anger expression, as expected, but AEI anger-in did not. The EAC emotional processing scale predicted less anger expression, but the EAC emotional expression scale was unrelated to anger expression. Finally, the TAS-20 predicted greater anger expression. Findings support the validity of the AEI anger-out scale but raise questions about the other measures. The assessment of emotional expression by self-report is complex and perhaps confounded by general emotional experience, the specificity or generality of the emotion(s) assessed, and self-awareness limitations. Performance-based or clinician-rated measures of emotion expression are needed. PMID:27248355

Do brain lesions in stroke affect basic emotions and attachment?

PubMed

Farinelli, Marina; Panksepp, Jaak; Gestieri, Laura; Maffei, Monica; Agati, Raffaele; Cevolani, Daniela; Pedone, Vincenzo; Northoff, Georg

2015-01-01

The aim of the current study was to investigate basic emotions and attachment in a sample of 86 stroke patients. We included a control group of 115 orthopedic patients (matched for age and cognitive status) without brain lesions to control for unspecific general illness effects of a traumatic recent event on basic emotions and attachment. In order to measure basic emotions and attachment style we applied the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) and the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The stroke patients showed significantly different scores in the SEEKING, SADNESS, and ANGER subscales of the ANPS as well as in the Relationship as Secondary Attachment dimension of the ASQ when compared to the control group. These differences show a pattern influenced by lesion location mainly as concerns basic emotions. Anterior, medial, left, and subcortical patients provide scores significantly lower in ANPS-SEEKING than the control group; ANPS-SADNESS scores in anterior, right, medial, and subcortical patients were significantly higher than those of the control group. ANPS-ANGER scores in posterior, right, and lateral patients were significantly higher than those in the control group; finally, the ANPS-FEAR showed slightly lower scores in posterior patients than in the control group. Minor effects on brain lesions were also individuated in the attachment style. Anterior lesion patients showed a significantly higher average score in the ASQ-Need for Approval subscale than the control group. ASQ-Confidence subscale scores differed significantly in stroke patients with lesions in medial brain regions when compared to control subjects. Scores at ANPS and ASQ subscales appear significantly more correlated in stroke patients than in the control group. Such finding of abnormalities, especially concerning basic emotions in stroke brain-lesioned patients, indicates that the effect of brain lesions may enhance the interrelation between basic emotions and attachment with respect to the control group.

Autonomic nervous system response patterns specificity to basic emotions.

PubMed

Collet, C; Vernet-Maury, E; Delhomme, G; Dittmar, A

1997-01-12

The aim of this study was to test the assumption that the autonomic nervous system responses to emotional stimuli are specific. A series of six slides was randomly presented to the subjects while six autonomic nervous system (ANS) parameters were recorded: skin conductance, skin potential, skin resistance, skin blood flow, skin temperature and instantaneous respiratory frequency. Each slide induced a basic emotion: happiness, surprise, anger, fear, sadness and disgust. Results have been first considered with reference to electrodermal responses (EDR) and secondly through thermo-vascular and respiratory variations. Classical as well as original indices were used to quantify autonomic responses. The six basic emotions were distinguished by Friedman variance analysis. Thus, ANS values corresponding to each emotion were compared two-by-two. EDR distinguished 13 emotion-pairs out of 15. 10 emotion-pairs were separated by skin resistance as well as skin conductance ohmic perturbation duration indices whereas conductance amplitude was only capable of distinguishing 7 emotion-pairs. Skin potential responses distinguished surprise and fear from sadness, and fear from disgust, according to their elementary pattern analysis in form and sign. Two-by-two comparisons of skin temperature, skin blood flow (estimated by the new non-oscillary duration index) and instantaneous respiratory frequency, enabled the distinction of 14 emotion-pairs out of 15. 9 emotion-pairs were distinguished by the non-oscillatory duration index values. Skin temperature was demonstrated to be different i.e. positive versus negative in response to anger and fear. The instantaneous respiratory frequency perturbation duration index was the only one capable of separating sadness from disgust. From the six ANS parameters study, different autonomic patterns were identified, each characterizing one of the six basic emotion used as inducing signals. No index alone, nor group of parameters (EDR and thermovascular for instance) were capable of distinguishing each emotion from another. However, electrodermal, thermo-vascular and respiratory responses taken as a whole, redundantly separated each emotion thus demonstrating the specificity of autonomic patterns.

The Relative Power of an Emotion's Facial Expression, Label, and Behavioral Consequence to Evoke Preschoolers' Knowledge of Its Cause

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Widen, Sherri C.; Russell, James A.

2004-01-01

Lay people and scientists alike assume that, especially for young children, facial expressions are a strong cue to another's emotion. We report a study in which children (N=120; 3-4 years) described events that would cause basic emotions (surprise, fear, anger, disgust, sadness) presented as its facial expression, as its label, or as its…

Time course of anger and other emotions in women with borderline personality disorder: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Jacob, Gitta A; Guenzler, Cindy; Zimmermann, Sabine; Scheel, Corinna N; Rüsch, Nicolas; Leonhart, Rainer; Nerb, Josef; Lieb, Klaus

2008-09-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by emotional dysregulation including strong emotional reactions to emotional stimuli and a slow return to baseline emotions. Difficulties controlling anger are particularly prominent in BPD. To experimentally test emotional dysregulation with a special focus on anger, we investigated whether a standardized anger induction by a short story caused stronger and prolonged anger reactions in women with BPD (n=27) as compared to female healthy controls (n=26) and whether other emotions were affected by the anger induction. Although the anger reaction was not stronger in the BPD group, it was significantly prolonged. The BPD group showed also stronger negative emotions over the whole experiment. The study is the first to demonstrate prolonged anger reactions in BPD patients in an experimental setting.

Multisensory perception of the six basic emotions is modulated by attentional instruction and unattended modality

PubMed Central

Takagi, Sachiko; Hiramatsu, Saori; Tabei, Ken-ichi; Tanaka, Akihiro

2015-01-01

Previous studies have shown that the perception of facial and vocal affective expressions interacts with each other. Facial expressions usually dominate vocal expressions when we perceive the emotions of face–voice stimuli. In most of these studies, participants were instructed to pay attention to the face or voice. Few studies compared the perceived emotions with and without specific instructions regarding the modality to which attention should be directed. Also, these studies used combinations of the face and voice which expresses two opposing emotions, which limits the generalizability of the findings. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the emotion perception is modulated by instructions to pay attention to the face or voice using the six basic emotions. Also we examine the modality dominance between the face and voice for each emotion category. Before the experiment, we recorded faces and voices which expresses the six basic emotions and orthogonally combined these faces and voices. Consequently, the emotional valence of visual and auditory information was either congruent or incongruent. In the experiment, there were unisensory and multisensory sessions. The multisensory session was divided into three blocks according to whether an instruction was given to pay attention to a given modality (face attention, voice attention, and no instruction). Participants judged whether the speaker expressed happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, or surprise. Our results revealed that instructions to pay attention to one modality and congruency of the emotions between modalities modulated the modality dominance, and the modality dominance is differed for each emotion category. In particular, the modality dominance for anger changed according to each instruction. Analyses also revealed that the modality dominance suggested by the congruency effect can be explained in terms of the facilitation effect and the interference effect. PMID:25698945

Emotion Knowledge and Attentional Differences in Preschoolers Showing Context-Inappropriate Anger.

PubMed

Locke, Robin L; Lang, Nichole J

2016-08-01

Some children show anger inappropriate for the situation based on the predominant incentives, which is called context-inappropriate anger. Children need to attend to and interpret situational incentives for appropriate emotional responses. We examined associations of context-inappropriate anger with emotion recognition and attention problems in 43 preschoolers (42% male; M age = 55.1 months, SD = 4.1). Parents rated context-inappropriate anger across situations. Teachers rated attention problems using the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form. Emotion recognition was ability to recognize emotional faces using the Emotion Matching Test. Anger perception bias was indicated by anger to non-anger situations using an adapted Affect Knowledge Test. 28% of children showed context-inappropriate anger, which correlated with lower emotion recognition (β = -.28) and higher attention problems (β = .36). Higher attention problems correlated with more anger perception bias (β = .32). This cross-sectional, correlational study provides preliminary findings that children with context-inappropriate anger showed more attention problems, which suggests that both "problems" tend to covary and associate with deficits or biases in emotion knowledge. © The Author(s) 2016.

EMOTION RECOGNITION OF VIRTUAL AGENTS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS: THE EFFECTS OF AGE AND EMOTION INTENSITY

PubMed Central

Beer, Jenay M.; Fisk, Arthur D.; Rogers, Wendy A.

2014-01-01

People make determinations about the social characteristics of an agent (e.g., robot or virtual agent) by interpreting social cues displayed by the agent, such as facial expressions. Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted investigating age-related differences in emotion recognition of human faces (e.g., Sullivan, & Ruffman, 2004), the effect of age on emotion identification of virtual agent facial expressions has been largely unexplored. Age-related differences in emotion recognition of facial expressions are an important factor to consider in the design of agents that may assist older adults in a recreational or healthcare setting. The purpose of the current research was to investigate whether age-related differences in facial emotion recognition can extend to emotion-expressive virtual agents. Younger and older adults performed a recognition task with a virtual agent expressing six basic emotions. Larger age-related differences were expected for virtual agents displaying negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, and fear. In fact, the results indicated that older adults showed a decrease in emotion recognition accuracy for a virtual agent's emotions of anger, fear, and happiness. PMID:25552896

Older Adults' Trait Impressions of Faces Are Sensitive to Subtle Resemblance to Emotions

PubMed Central

Zebrowitz, Leslie A.

2013-01-01

Younger adults (YA) attribute emotion-related traits to people whose neutral facial structure resembles an emotion (emotion overgeneralization). The fact that older adults (OA) show deficits in accurately labeling basic emotions suggests that they may be relatively insensitive to variations in the emotion resemblance of neutral expression faces that underlie emotion overgeneralization effects. On the other hand, the fact that OA, like YA, show a ‘pop-out’ effect for anger, more quickly locating an angry than a happy face in a neutral array, suggests that both age groups may be equally sensitive to emotion resemblance. We used computer modeling to assess the degree to which neutral faces objectively resembled emotions and assessed whether that resemblance predicted trait impressions. We found that both OA and YA showed anger and surprise overgeneralization in ratings of danger and naiveté, respectively, with no significant differences in the strength of the effects for the two age groups. These findings suggest that well-documented OA deficits on emotion recognition tasks may be more due to processing demands than to an insensitivity to the social affordances of emotion expressions. PMID:24058225

Counting to ten milliseconds: low-anger, but not high-anger, individuals pause following negative evaluations.

PubMed

Robinson, Michael D; Wilkowski, Benjamin M; Meier, Brian P; Moeller, Sara K; Fetterman, Adam K

2012-01-01

Low-anger individuals are less reactive, both emotionally and behaviourally, to a large variety of situational primes to anger and aggression. Why this is so, from an affective processing perspective, has been largely conjectural. Four studies (total N=270) sought to link individual differences in anger to tendencies exhibited in basic affective processing tasks. On the basis of motivational factors and considerations, it was hypothesised that negative evaluations would differentially activate a psychological alarm system at low levels of anger, resulting in a pause that should be evident in the speed of making subsequent evaluations. Just such a pattern was evident in all studies. By contrast, high-anger individuals did not pause following their negative evaluations. In relation to this affective processing tendency, at least, dramatically different effects were observed among low- versus high-anger individuals. Implications for the personality-processing literature, theories of trait anger, and fast-acting regulatory processes are discussed.

Bodily maps of emotions across child development.

PubMed

Hietanen, Jari K; Glerean, Enrico; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2016-11-01

Different basic emotions (anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, and surprise) are consistently associated with distinct bodily sensation maps, which may underlie subjectively felt emotions. Here we investigated the development of bodily sensations associated with basic emotions in 6- to 17-year-old children and adolescents (n = 331). Children as young as 6 years of age associated statistically discernible, discrete patterns of bodily sensations with happiness, fear, and surprise, as well as with emotional neutrality. The bodily sensation maps changed from less to more specific, adult-like patterns as a function of age. We conclude that emotion-related bodily sensations become increasingly discrete over child development. Developing awareness of their emotion-related bodily sensations may shape the way children perceive, label, and interpret emotions. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

From disgust to contempt-speech: The nature of contempt on the map of prejudicial emotions.

PubMed

Bilewicz, Michal; Kamińska, Olga Katarzyna; Winiewski, Mikołaj; Soral, Wiktor

2017-01-01

Analyzing the contempt as an intergroup emotion, we suggest that contempt and anger are not built upon each other, whereas disgust seems to be the most elementary and specific basic-emotional antecedent of contempt. Concurring with Gervais & Fessler, we suggest that many instances of "hate speech" are in fact instances of "contempt speech" - being based on disgust-driven contempt rather than hate.

Cross-cultural recognition of basic emotions through nonverbal emotional vocalizations

PubMed Central

Sauter, Disa A.; Eisner, Frank; Ekman, Paul; Scott, Sophie K.

2010-01-01

Emotional signals are crucial for sharing important information, with conspecifics, for example, to warn humans of danger. Humans use a range of different cues to communicate to others how they feel, including facial, vocal, and gestural signals. We examined the recognition of nonverbal emotional vocalizations, such as screams and laughs, across two dramatically different cultural groups. Western participants were compared to individuals from remote, culturally isolated Namibian villages. Vocalizations communicating the so-called “basic emotions” (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) were bidirectionally recognized. In contrast, a set of additional emotions was only recognized within, but not across, cultural boundaries. Our findings indicate that a number of primarily negative emotions have vocalizations that can be recognized across cultures, while most positive emotions are communicated with culture-specific signals. PMID:20133790

On the deep structure of social affect: Attitudes, emotions, sentiments, and the case of "contempt".

PubMed

Gervais, Matthew M; Fessler, Daniel M T

2017-01-01

Contempt is typically studied as a uniquely human moral emotion. However, this approach has yielded inconclusive results. We argue this is because the folk affect concept "contempt" has been inaccurately mapped onto basic affect systems. "Contempt" has features that are inconsistent with a basic emotion, especially its protracted duration and frequently cold phenomenology. Yet other features are inconsistent with a basic attitude. Nonetheless, the features of "contempt" functionally cohere. To account for this, we revive and reconfigure the sentiment construct using the notion of evolved functional specialization. We develop the Attitude-Scenario-Emotion (ASE) model of sentiments, in which enduring attitudes represent others' social-relational value and moderate discrete emotions across scenarios. Sentiments are functional networks of attitudes and emotions. Distinct sentiments, including love, respect, like, hate, and fear, track distinct relational affordances, and each is emotionally pluripotent, thereby serving both bookkeeping and commitment functions within relationships. The sentiment contempt is an absence of respect; from cues to others' low efficacy, it represents them as worthless and small, muting compassion, guilt, and shame and potentiating anger, disgust, and mirth. This sentiment is ancient yet implicated in the ratcheting evolution of human ultrasocialty. The manifolds of the contempt network, differentially engaged across individuals and populations, explain the features of "contempt," its translatability, and its variable experience as "hot" or "cold," occurrent or enduring, and anger-like or disgust-like. This rapprochement between psychological anthropology and evolutionary psychology contributes both methodological and empirical insights, with broad implications for understanding the functional and cultural organization of social affect.

Stability of facial emotion recognition performance in bipolar disorder.

PubMed

Martino, Diego J; Samamé, Cecilia; Strejilevich, Sergio A

2016-09-30

The aim of this study was to assess the performance in emotional processing over time in a sample of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder (BD). Performance in the facial recognition of the six basic emotions (surprise, anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, and fear) did not change during a follow-up period of almost 7 years. These preliminary results suggest that performance in facial emotion recognition might be stable over time in BD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

On the Time Course of Vocal Emotion Recognition

PubMed Central

Pell, Marc D.; Kotz, Sonja A.

2011-01-01

How quickly do listeners recognize emotions from a speaker's voice, and does the time course for recognition vary by emotion type? To address these questions, we adapted the auditory gating paradigm to estimate how much vocal information is needed for listeners to categorize five basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness) and neutral utterances produced by male and female speakers of English. Semantically-anomalous pseudo-utterances (e.g., The rivix jolled the silling) conveying each emotion were divided into seven gate intervals according to the number of syllables that listeners heard from sentence onset. Participants (n = 48) judged the emotional meaning of stimuli presented at each gate duration interval, in a successive, blocked presentation format. Analyses looked at how recognition of each emotion evolves as an utterance unfolds and estimated the “identification point” for each emotion. Results showed that anger, sadness, fear, and neutral expressions are recognized more accurately at short gate intervals than happiness, and particularly disgust; however, as speech unfolds, recognition of happiness improves significantly towards the end of the utterance (and fear is recognized more accurately than other emotions). When the gate associated with the emotion identification point of each stimulus was calculated, data indicated that fear (M = 517 ms), sadness (M = 576 ms), and neutral (M = 510 ms) expressions were identified from shorter acoustic events than the other emotions. These data reveal differences in the underlying time course for conscious recognition of basic emotions from vocal expressions, which should be accounted for in studies of emotional speech processing. PMID:22087275

Basic emotions induced by odorants: a new approach based on autonomic pattern results.

PubMed

Vernet-Maury, E; Alaoui-Ismaïli, O; Dittmar, A; Delhomme, G; Chanel, J

1999-02-15

The aim of this study was to link the effects of odorants with the emotional process, through autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses. Taking Ekman's data and our previous results into account, we tried to verify a possible evocation by odorants of some basic emotions, i.e. anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust and happiness. The question investigated was: would it be possible to associate any of these emotions with a pattern of autonomic responses? A total of 15 subjects inhaled five odorants: lavender, ethyl aceto acetate, camphor, acetic acid and butyric acid acting as olfactory stimuli. After inhaling the odorant, subjects were requested to fill out an 11-point hedonic scale to rate its 'pleasantness' vs. 'unpleasantness'. ANS parameters monitored were skin potential and resistance, skin blood flow and temperature, instantaneous respiratory frequency and instantaneous heart rate. Simultaneous recording of these six autonomic parameters permitted the analysis of phasic responses through specific ANS patterns. An analysis of variance made it possible to differentiate among the five odorants. Two-by-two odorant comparisons for autonomic responses using Tukey's HSD multiple comparison test only permitted differentiation between 'pleasant' and 'unpleasant' odors. Camphor was differentiated from both types. For instance, long duration responses were associated with 'unpleasant' odors whereas camphor elicited intermediate responses. Taking into account each subject's preferential channel, it was possible to associate each ANS pattern with a basic emotion by means of a decision tree. The computation of subjects' responses made it possible to associate an odorant with a basic emotion, over the whole group: lavender elicited mostly 'happiness', as did, to a lesser degree ethyl aceto acetate; camphor induced either 'happiness', 'surprise' or 'sadness' according to subjects' past histories; butyric and acetic acids mainly induced negative emotions: 'anger' and 'disgust'. A high correlation was evidenced between subjects' hedonic evaluation and autonomic estimation of basic emotions. These results obtained from 15 subjects were compared to those observed in two similar experiments. These approaches showed comparable results. Thus, more than 60 subjects showed similar autonomic responses which can be transcribed into basic emotions. Thus, a multiparametric autonomic analysis allows the identification of the quality of the response, i.e. the type of basic emotion in addition to the intensity.

Emotion Regulation through Movement: Unique Sets of Movement Characteristics are Associated with and Enhance Basic Emotions.

PubMed

Shafir, Tal; Tsachor, Rachelle P; Welch, Kathleen B

2015-01-01

We have recently demonstrated that motor execution, observation, and imagery of movements expressing certain emotions can enhance corresponding affective states and therefore could be used for emotion regulation. But which specific movement(s) should one use in order to enhance each emotion? This study aimed to identify, using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), the Laban motor elements (motor characteristics) that characterize movements whose execution enhances each of the basic emotions: anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. LMA provides a system of symbols describing its motor elements, which gives a written instruction (motif) for the execution of a movement or movement-sequence over time. Six senior LMA experts analyzed a validated set of video clips showing whole body dynamic expressions of anger, fear, happiness and sadness, and identified the motor elements that were common to (appeared in) all clips expressing the same emotion. For each emotion, we created motifs of different combinations of the motor elements common to all clips of the same emotion. Eighty subjects from around the world read and moved those motifs, to identify the emotion evoked when moving each motif and to rate the intensity of the evoked emotion. All subjects together moved and rated 1241 motifs, which were produced from 29 different motor elements. Using logistic regression, we found a set of motor elements associated with each emotion which, when moved, predicted the feeling of that emotion. Each emotion was predicted by a unique set of motor elements and each motor element predicted only one emotion. Knowledge of which specific motor elements enhance specific emotions can enable emotional self-regulation through adding some desired motor qualities to one's personal everyday movements (rather than mimicking others' specific movements) and through decreasing motor behaviors which include elements that enhance negative emotions.

Emotion Regulation through Movement: Unique Sets of Movement Characteristics are Associated with and Enhance Basic Emotions

PubMed Central

Shafir, Tal; Tsachor, Rachelle P.; Welch, Kathleen B.

2016-01-01

We have recently demonstrated that motor execution, observation, and imagery of movements expressing certain emotions can enhance corresponding affective states and therefore could be used for emotion regulation. But which specific movement(s) should one use in order to enhance each emotion? This study aimed to identify, using Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), the Laban motor elements (motor characteristics) that characterize movements whose execution enhances each of the basic emotions: anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. LMA provides a system of symbols describing its motor elements, which gives a written instruction (motif) for the execution of a movement or movement-sequence over time. Six senior LMA experts analyzed a validated set of video clips showing whole body dynamic expressions of anger, fear, happiness and sadness, and identified the motor elements that were common to (appeared in) all clips expressing the same emotion. For each emotion, we created motifs of different combinations of the motor elements common to all clips of the same emotion. Eighty subjects from around the world read and moved those motifs, to identify the emotion evoked when moving each motif and to rate the intensity of the evoked emotion. All subjects together moved and rated 1241 motifs, which were produced from 29 different motor elements. Using logistic regression, we found a set of motor elements associated with each emotion which, when moved, predicted the feeling of that emotion. Each emotion was predicted by a unique set of motor elements and each motor element predicted only one emotion. Knowledge of which specific motor elements enhance specific emotions can enable emotional self-regulation through adding some desired motor qualities to one's personal everyday movements (rather than mimicking others' specific movements) and through decreasing motor behaviors which include elements that enhance negative emotions. PMID:26793147

Cultural Specific Effects on the Recognition of Basic Emotions: A Study on Italian Subjects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esposito, Anna; Riviello, Maria Teresa; Bourbakis, Nikolaos

The present work reports the results of perceptual experiments aimed to investigate if some of the basic emotions are perceptually privileged and if the cultural environment and the perceptual mode play a role in this preference. To this aim, Italian subjects were requested to assess emotional stimuli extracted from Italian and American English movies in the single (either video or audio alone) and the combined audio/video mode. Results showed that anger, fear, and sadness are better perceived than surprise, happiness in both the cultural environments (irony instead strongly depend on the language), that emotional information is affected by the communication mode and that language plays a role in assessing emotional information. Implications for the implementation of emotionally colored interactive systems are discussed.

Basic emotions evoked by eugenol odor differ according to the dental experience. A neurovegetative analysis.

PubMed

Robin, O; Alaoui-Ismaïli, O; Dittmar, A; Vernet-Maury, E

1999-06-01

Subjective individual experiences seem to indicate that odors may form strong connections with memories, especially those charged with emotional significance. In the dental field, this could be the case with the odorant eugenol, responsible for the typical clinging odor impregnating the dental office. The odor of eugenol could evoke memories of unpleasant dental experiences and, therefore, negative feelings such as anxiety and fear, since eugenates (cements containing eugenol) are used in potentially painful restorative dentistry. This hypothesis was tested by evaluating the emotional impact of the odor of eugenol through autonomic nervous system (ANS) analysis. The simultaneous variations of six ANS parameters (two electrodermal, two thermovascular and two cardiorespiratory), induced by the inhalation of this odorant, were recorded on volunteer subjects. Vanillin (a pleasant odorant) and propionic acid (an unpleasant one) served as controls. After the experiment, subjects were asked to rate the pleasantness versus unpleasantness of each odorant on an 11-point hedonic scale. The patterns of autonomic responses, obtained for each odorant and each subject, were transcribed into one of the six basic emotions defined by Ekman et al. (happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, anger and disgust). Results were compared between two groups of subjects divided according to their dental experience (fearful and non-fearful dental care subjects) and showed significant differences only for eugenol. This odorant was rated as pleasant by non-fearful dental subjects but unpleasant by fearful dental subjects. The evoked autonomic responses were mainly associated with positive basic emotions (happiness and surprise) in non-fearful dental subjects and with negative basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust) in fearful dental subjects. These results suggest that eugenol can be responsible for different emotional states depending on the subjects' dental experience, which seems to confirm the potential role of odors as elicitors of emotional memories. This study also supports the possible influence of the ambient odor impregnating the dental office, strengthening a negative conditioning toward dental care in some anxious patients.

Discrete Neural Signatures of Basic Emotions.

PubMed

Saarimäki, Heini; Gotsopoulos, Athanasios; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Lampinen, Jouko; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Hari, Riitta; Sams, Mikko; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2016-06-01

Categorical models of emotions posit neurally and physiologically distinct human basic emotions. We tested this assumption by using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to classify brain activity patterns of 6 basic emotions (disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, anger, and surprise) in 3 experiments. Emotions were induced with short movies or mental imagery during functional magnetic resonance imaging. MVPA accurately classified emotions induced by both methods, and the classification generalized from one induction condition to another and across individuals. Brain regions contributing most to the classification accuracy included medial and inferior lateral prefrontal cortices, frontal pole, precentral and postcentral gyri, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex. Thus, specific neural signatures across these regions hold representations of different emotional states in multimodal fashion, independently of how the emotions are induced. Similarity of subjective experiences between emotions was associated with similarity of neural patterns for the same emotions, suggesting a direct link between activity in these brain regions and the subjective emotional experience. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The ToMenovela – A Photograph-Based Stimulus Set for the Study of Social Cognition with High Ecological Validity

PubMed Central

Herbort, Maike C.; Iseev, Jenny; Stolz, Christopher; Roeser, Benedict; Großkopf, Nora; Wüstenberg, Torsten; Hellweg, Rainer; Walter, Henrik; Dziobek, Isabel; Schott, Björn H.

2016-01-01

We present the ToMenovela, a stimulus set that has been developed to provide a set of normatively rated socio-emotional stimuli showing varying amount of characters in emotionally laden interactions for experimental investigations of (i) cognitive and (ii) affective Theory of Mind (ToM), (iii) emotional reactivity, and (iv) complex emotion judgment with respect to Ekman’s basic emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, Ekman and Friesen, 1975). Stimuli were generated with focus on ecological validity and consist of 190 scenes depicting daily-life situations. Two or more of eight main characters with distinct biographies and personalities are depicted on each scene picture. To obtain an initial evaluation of the stimulus set and to pave the way for future studies in clinical populations, normative data on each stimulus of the set was obtained from a sample of 61 neurologically and psychiatrically healthy participants (31 female, 30 male; mean age 26.74 ± 5.84), including a visual analog scale rating of Ekman’s basic emotions (happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise) and free-text descriptions of the content of each scene. The ToMenovela is being developed to provide standardized material of social scenes that are available to researchers in the study of social cognition. It should facilitate experimental control while keeping ecological validity high. PMID:27994562

Norms for 10,491 Spanish words for five discrete emotions: Happiness, disgust, anger, fear, and sadness.

PubMed

Stadthagen-González, Hans; Ferré, Pilar; Pérez-Sánchez, Miguel A; Imbault, Constance; Hinojosa, José Antonio

2017-09-18

The discrete emotion theory proposes that affective experiences can be reduced to a limited set of universal "basic" emotions, most commonly identified as happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust. Here we present norms for 10,491 Spanish words for those five discrete emotions collected from a total of 2,010 native speakers, making it the largest set of norms for discrete emotions in any language to date. When used in conjunction with the norms from Hinojosa, Martínez-García et al. (Behavior Research Methods, 48, 272-284, 2016) and Ferré, Guasch, Martínez-García, Fraga, & Hinojosa (Behavior Research Methods, 49, 1082-1094, 2017), researchers now have access to ratings of discrete emotions for 13,633 Spanish words. Our norms show a high degree of inter-rater reliability and correlate highly with those from Ferré et al. (2017). Our exploration of the relationship between the five discrete emotions and relevant lexical and emotional variables confirmed findings of previous studies conducted with smaller datasets. The availability of such large set of norms will greatly facilitate the study of emotion, language and related fields. The norms are available as supplementary materials to this article.

Keeping your eyes on the prize: anger and visual attention to threats and rewards.

PubMed

Ford, Brett Q; Tamir, Maya; Brunyé, Tad T; Shirer, William R; Mahoney, Caroline R; Taylor, Holly A

2010-08-01

People's emotional states influence what they focus their attention on in their environment. For example, fear focuses people's attention on threats, whereas excitement may focus their attention on rewards. This study examined the effect of anger on overt visual attention to threats and rewards. Anger is an unpleasant emotion associated with approach motivation. If the effect of emotion on visual attention depends on valence, we would expect anger to focus people's attention on threats. If, however, the effect of emotion on visual attention depends on motivation, we would expect anger to focus people's attention on rewards. Using an eye tracker, we examined the effects of anger, fear, excitement, and a neutral emotional state on participants' overt visual attention to threatening, rewarding, and control images. We found that anger increased visual attention to rewarding information, but not to threatening information. These findings demonstrate that anger increases attention to potential rewards and suggest that the effects of emotions on visual attention are motivationally driven.

Perception of emotion in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Lavenu, I; Pasquier, F; Lebert, F; Petit, H; Van der Linden, M

1999-01-01

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second cause of degenerative dementia. Behavioral changes occur before the cognitive decline and remain the major feature. A poor perception of emotion could account for some behavioral symptoms. The aim of this study was to assess the perception of emotion in patients with FTD and to compare it with that of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). Fifty subjects performed the tests: 20 patients with probable AD, 18 patients with FTD, and 12 matched controls. The two patient groups did not differ in age, sex, severity of dementia, duration of the disease, and language tests. Subjects had to recognize and point out the name of one of seven basic emotions (anger, disgust, happiness, fear, sadness, surprise, and contempt) on a set of 28 faces presented on slides. The three groups were equally able to distinguish a face displaying affect from one not displaying affect. Naming of emotion was worse in patients with FTD than in patients with AD (correct answers 46% vs. 62%; p = 0.0006) who did not differ significantly from controls (72%). Anger, sadness, and disgust were less recognized in FTD than in AD patients who did not differ from controls, whereas fear and contempt were poorly recognized in both groups of patients compared with controls. These findings argue for different neural substrates underlying the recognition of various basic emotions. Behavioral disorders in FTD may be partly due to an impaired interpretation of the emotional environment.

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures.

PubMed

An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion.

Maternal Punitive Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions and Young Adult Trait Anger: Effect of Gender and Emotional Closeness.

PubMed

Perry, Nicole B; Cavanaugh, Alyson; Dunbar, Angel; Leerkes, Esther M

The current study tested whether young adult's recollected reports of their mother's punitive reactions to their negative emotions in childhood predicted anger expression in young adulthood and whether emotional closeness weakens this association. Further, a three-way interaction was tested to examine whether emotional closeness is a stronger protective factor for young women than for young men. Results revealed a significant three-way interaction (gender X emotional closeness X maternal punitive reactions). For young men, maternal punitive reactions to negative emotions were directly associated with increased anger expressions. Maternal punitive reactions to young women's negative emotions in childhood were associated with increased anger in adulthood only when they reported low maternal emotional closeness. Findings suggest that maternal emotional closeness may serve as a buffer against the negative effects of maternal punitive reactions for women's anger expression in young adulthood.

Maternal Punitive Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions and Young Adult Trait Anger: Effect of Gender and Emotional Closeness

PubMed Central

Perry, Nicole B.; Cavanaugh, Alyson; Dunbar, Angel; Leerkes, Esther M.

2015-01-01

The current study tested whether young adult’s recollected reports of their mother’s punitive reactions to their negative emotions in childhood predicted anger expression in young adulthood and whether emotional closeness weakens this association. Further, a three-way interaction was tested to examine whether emotional closeness is a stronger protective factor for young women than for young men. Results revealed a significant three-way interaction (gender X emotional closeness X maternal punitive reactions). For young men, maternal punitive reactions to negative emotions were directly associated with increased anger expressions. Maternal punitive reactions to young women’s negative emotions in childhood were associated with increased anger in adulthood only when they reported low maternal emotional closeness. Findings suggest that maternal emotional closeness may serve as a buffer against the negative effects of maternal punitive reactions for women’s anger expression in young adulthood. PMID:26568644

Paving the road to war with group membership, appraisal antecedents, and anger.

PubMed

Cheung-Blunden, Violet; Blunden, Bill

2008-01-01

This study uses appraisal theory, functionalist approach to emotions, and recent theory on group emotions as a basic framework to model the genesis of supporting military action. During the year after the events of 9/11, 588 college students participated in a series of four studies that assessed religious affiliation, appraisal antecedents, anger response to viewing photographs of the 9/11 attack, and support for military action. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that the relation between support for the war and attitudes toward terrorism and relevance could be explained adequately by a model in which anger mediated the effects of attitudes and relevance on support. Attitudes toward terrorism were further identified as mediators that could explain the group effect by Christians. The result was not only generalizable across the conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also in terms of how consent for war manifests itself--outright calls for bloodshed versus more subtle, politically loaded, posturing (e.g. entreaties to "support our troops"). Copyright 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Fathers' and mothers' emotion talk with their girls and boys from toddlerhood to preschool age.

PubMed

van der Pol, Lotte D; Groeneveld, Marleen G; van Berkel, Sheila R; Endendijk, Joyce J; Hallers-Haalboom, Elizabeth T; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J; Mesman, Judi

2015-12-01

Goals of the current study were to examine fathers' and mothers' emotion talk from toddlerhood to preschool age, and to test whether parents socialize emotions differently in girls and boys. In a sample of 317 families, we observed both parents' emotion talk and their use of gender labels, while discussing a picture book with drawings of children displaying 4 basic emotions (anger, fear, sadness, and happiness), with their first- and second-born children when the children were 4 and 2 years of age, respectively, and again 12 months later. Findings revealed that parents generally elaborated more on emotions with the second-born children when the children were 3 years of age than when they were 2 years old. With their firstborn children parents elaborated less on emotions when the children were 5 years old than when they were 4 years of age. Further, mothers elaborated more on emotions than fathers. Parents' use of gender labels for the children in the pictures showed that parents associated anger more with boys, whereas they associated sadness and happiness more with girls. These findings suggest that parents adjust their emotion socialization strategies to their child's level of emotion understanding, and that both parents convey stereotypical gender messages during parent-child discussion of emotions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Can implicit appraisal concepts produce emotion-specific effects? A focus on unfairness and anger.

PubMed

Tong, Eddie M W; Tan, Deborah H; Tan, Yan Lin

2013-06-01

This research examined whether the non-conscious activation of an implicit appraisal concept could affect responses associated with the corresponding emotion as predicted by appraisal theories. Explicit and implicit emotional responses were examined. We focused on implicit unfairness and its effect on anger. The results show that subliminal activation of implicit unfairness affected implicit anger responses (anger facial expression and latency responses to anger words) but not explicit anger feelings (i.e., reported anger). The non-conscious effect of implicit unfairness was specific to anger, as no effect on sadness, fear, and guilt was found. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decreased Emotional Perception in Obesity.

PubMed

Giel, Katrin Elisabeth; Hartmann, Armin; Zeeck, Almut; Jux, Anna; Vuck, Alexander; Gierthmuehlen, Petra C Guess; Wetzler-Burmeister, Edda; Sandholz, Angelika; Marjanovic, Goran; Joos, Andreas

2016-07-01

There is hardly any empirical evidence on emotion processing by controlled studies in obesity. Participants rated their emotions in response to visual emotional stimuli from the International Affective Picture System. Study 1 compared obese women with normal-weight controls and women with eating disorders. Study 2 compared obese men with normal-weight controls. Obese women had reduced emotional intensity scores for all basic emotions and the mixed emotion sadness-fear. Obese men had reduced scores for all emotions except happiness and disgust; anger showed a trend towards significance. The results were mainly based on ratings from non-depressed obese individuals. Obese men and women scored significantly lower on most basic and mixed emotions. Non-depressed obese subjects seem particularly affected. These new findings must be validated by further study, and longitudinal evaluation after weight loss, e.g. by bariatric surgery, will be of interest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Understanding Clinical Anger and Violence: The Anger Avoidance Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Frank L.; Moore, Zella E.

2008-01-01

Although anger is a primary emotion and holds clear functional necessities, the presence of anger and its behavioral manifestations of aggression/violence can have serious emotional, health, and social consequences. Despite such consequences, the construct of clinical anger has to date suffered from few theoretical and treatment advancements and…

Notes to Parents - When Your Child Has Undergone Amputation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierson, Margaret Hauser

Designed to provide parents with basic information about the physical and emotional aspects of amputation, the booklet gives information about the grief response, body image, phantom limb sensation, stump care, and the prosthesis. The section on the grief process describes normal reactions to loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and…

How does social anger expression predict later depression symptoms? It depends on how often one is angry.

PubMed

Chue, Amanda E; Gunthert, Kathleen C; Ahrens, Anthony H; Skalina, Lauren M

2017-02-01

Research has suggested that there are benefits to socially sharing anger as an emotion regulation strategy. We hypothesized that these benefits may depend on the frequency with which one is experiencing anger. We used an experience sampling methodology to explore the interaction between frequency of anger and reliance on social expression of anger as a predictor of changes in depression symptoms 4 months later. We found that a strong reliance on social expression prospectively predicted lower depression symptoms when participants endorsed anger infrequently but predicted an increase in subsequent depression symptoms when anger was endorsed frequently. This interaction was specific to anger and did not extend to sadness or anxiety. These results highlight the importance of considering the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies in the context of specific emotions and the frequency of the experienced emotion in everyday life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Forgiveness from Emotion Fit: Emotional Frame, Consumer Emotion, and Feeling-Right in Consumer Decision to Forgive

PubMed Central

Ran, Yaxuan; Wei, Haiying; Li, Qing

2016-01-01

Three studies examine an emotion fit effect in the crisis communication, namely, the interaction between emotional frames of guilt and shame and consumer emotions of anger and fear on consumer forgiveness. Guilt-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than shame-framing for angry consumers, whereas shame-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than guilt-framing for fearful consumers. These effects are driven by consumers’ accessible regulatory foci associated with anger/fear and guilt/shame. Specifically, feelings of anger activate a promotion focus that is represented by guilt frames, while feelings of fear activate a prevention focus that is enacted by shame frames. Compared with emotion non-fit (i.e., anger to shame and fear to guilt), emotion fit (i.e., anger to guilt and fear to shame) facilitates greater feeling-right and consumer forgiveness. The findings offer novel insights for extant literature on emotion, crisis communication, and regulatory focus theory, as well as practical suggestions regarding the emotional frames. PMID:27895612

Forgiveness from Emotion Fit: Emotional Frame, Consumer Emotion, and Feeling-Right in Consumer Decision to Forgive.

PubMed

Ran, Yaxuan; Wei, Haiying; Li, Qing

2016-01-01

Three studies examine an emotion fit effect in the crisis communication, namely, the interaction between emotional frames of guilt and shame and consumer emotions of anger and fear on consumer forgiveness. Guilt-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than shame-framing for angry consumers, whereas shame-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than guilt-framing for fearful consumers. These effects are driven by consumers' accessible regulatory foci associated with anger/fear and guilt/shame. Specifically, feelings of anger activate a promotion focus that is represented by guilt frames, while feelings of fear activate a prevention focus that is enacted by shame frames. Compared with emotion non-fit (i.e., anger to shame and fear to guilt), emotion fit (i.e., anger to guilt and fear to shame) facilitates greater feeling-right and consumer forgiveness. The findings offer novel insights for extant literature on emotion, crisis communication, and regulatory focus theory, as well as practical suggestions regarding the emotional frames.

Comparison of Classification Methods for Detecting Emotion from Mandarin Speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pao, Tsang-Long; Chen, Yu-Te; Yeh, Jun-Heng

It is said that technology comes out from humanity. What is humanity? The very definition of humanity is emotion. Emotion is the basis for all human expression and the underlying theme behind everything that is done, said, thought or imagined. Making computers being able to perceive and respond to human emotion, the human-computer interaction will be more natural. Several classifiers are adopted for automatically assigning an emotion category, such as anger, happiness or sadness, to a speech utterance. These classifiers were designed independently and tested on various emotional speech corpora, making it difficult to compare and evaluate their performance. In this paper, we first compared several popular classification methods and evaluated their performance by applying them to a Mandarin speech corpus consisting of five basic emotions, including anger, happiness, boredom, sadness and neutral. The extracted feature streams contain MFCC, LPCC, and LPC. The experimental results show that the proposed WD-MKNN classifier achieves an accuracy of 81.4% for the 5-class emotion recognition and outperforms other classification techniques, including KNN, MKNN, DW-KNN, LDA, QDA, GMM, HMM, SVM, and BPNN. Then, to verify the advantage of the proposed method, we compared these classifiers by applying them to another Mandarin expressive speech corpus consisting of two emotions. The experimental results still show that the proposed WD-MKNN outperforms others.

Context-Inappropriate Anger, Emotion Knowledge Deficits, and Negative Social Experiences in Preschool

PubMed Central

Locke, Robin L.; Miller, Alison L.; Seifer, Ronald; Heinze, Justin E.

2015-01-01

This study examined contextually-inappropriate (CI) anger in relation to emotion recognition and situation knowledge, negative social experiences, and externalizing behavior among low-income 4-year-olds attending Head Start (n=134). Approximately one-quarter of children (23%) showed anger when presented with positive/neutral slides and videos (valence-incongruent CI anger), whereas 2/5 of children (40%) showed anger when presented with negative slides and videos (valence-congruent CI anger). Valence-incongruent CI anger was associated with lower emotion situation knowledge (for boys only), more self-reported peer rejection and loneliness, and greater negative nominations by teachers and peers. Both valence-incongruent and (for boys only) valence-congruent CI anger were positively associated with externalizing behavior. Overall, valence-incongruent CI anger was more strongly associated with negative child outcomes than valence-congruent CI anger. PMID:26376288

Assertive Anger Mediates Effects of Dialectical Behaviour-informed Skills Training for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Kramer, Ueli; Pascual-Leone, Antonio; Berthoud, Laurent; de Roten, Yves; Marquet, Pierre; Kolly, Stéphane; Despland, Jean-Nicolas; Page, Dominique

2016-05-01

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)-informed skills training for borderline personality disorder (BPD) aims at the development of specific emotion regulation skills in patients, particularly with regard to the regulation of problematic anger. While the effects of dialectical behaviour skills training have been shown, their processes of change are rarely examined. Neacsiu, Rizvi and Linehan (2010) found that patient's self-reported use of emotion regulation skills was a mediator of therapeutic change in these treatments; however, they found no effect for problematic anger. From an integrative perspective on anger (Pascual-Leone & Greenberg, 2007; Pascual-Leone & Paivio, 2013), there are several forms of anger, varying in their degree of therapeutic productivity. The present add-on randomized controlled trial included n = 41 patients with BPD (n = 21 DBT-informed skills training versus n = 20 treatment as usual). The first study examined the outcome of the DBT-informed skills training encompassing basic components of training in mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and emotion regulation. Results showed that symptom reduction was significantly greater in the DBT-informed skills training, compared with the treatment as usual. The second study used process assessment, for which all patient completers underwent a 50-min-long psychological interview both early and late in treatment, which was rated using the Classification of Affective Meaning States. DBT-informed skills training produced increased levels of primary 'assertive' anger, as compared with the treatment as usual, whereas no effect was found for 'rejecting' secondary anger. Most importantly, we showed that changes in assertive anger mediated the reported symptom reduction, in particular in patient's social roles. We discuss these results in the context of underlying mechanisms of change in DBT skills group treatments, in particular towards developing more productive forms of anger in this patient population. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A 20-session dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)-informed skills training is a promising adjunct intervention for patients with borderline personality disorder, in particular for reducing problems related to social role. Increases in assertive anger mediate the effects of DBT-informed skills training, whereas rejecting anger remains unchanged over the course of treatment. Short-term objectives for intervention might involve the specific increase of assertive anger in BPD, by using DBT-informed skills training; long-term objectives for intervention might involve a specific decrease of rejecting anger in BPD. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Emotional Lability and Affective Synchrony in Borderline Personality Disorder

PubMed Central

Schoenleber, Michelle; Berghoff, Christopher R.; Tull, Matthew T.; DiLillo, David; Messman-Moore, Terri; Gratz, Kim L.

2015-01-01

Extant research on emotional lability in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has focused almost exclusively on lability of individual emotions or emotion types, with limited research considering how different types of emotions shift together over time. Thus, this study examined the temporal dynamics of emotion in BPD at the level of both individual emotions (i.e., self-conscious emotions [SCE], anger, and anxiety) and mixed emotions (i.e., synchrony between emotions). One hundred forty-four women from the community completed a diagnostic interview and laboratory study involving five emotion induction tasks (each of which was preceded and followed by a 5-min resting period or neutral task). State ratings of SCE, anger, and anxiety were provided at 14 time points (before and after each laboratory task and resting period). Hierarchical linear modeling results indicate that women with BPD reported greater mean levels of SCE and Anxiety (but not Anger), and greater lability of Anxiety. Women with BPD also exhibited greater variability in lability of all three emotions (suggestive of within-group differences in the relevance of lability to BPD). Results also revealed synchrony (i.e., positive relations) between each possible pair of emotions, regardless of BPD status. Follow-up regression analyses suggest the importance of accounting for lability when examining the role of synchrony in BPD, as the relation of SCE-Anger synchrony to BPD symptom severity was moderated by Anger and SCE lability. Specifically, synchronous changes in SCE and Anger were associated with greater BPD symptom severity when large shifts in SCE were paired with minor shifts in Anger. PMID:27362623

Regulating Rumination by Anger: Evidence for the Mutual Promotion and Counteraction (MPMC) Theory of Emotionality.

PubMed

Zhan, Jun; Tang, Fan; He, Mei; Fan, Jin; Xiao, Jing; Liu, Chang; Luo, Jing

2017-01-01

Unlike the strategy of cognitive regulation that relies heavily on the top-down control function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which was recently found may be critically impaired in stressful situations, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views different types of emotionality as having mutual promotion and counteraction (MPMC) relationships, implying a novel approach that requires less cognition to emotional regulation. Actually, our previous studies have indicated that anger responses could be successfully regulated via the induction of sadness, and this efficiency could not be influenced by stress, thus providing evidences for the hypothesis of "sadness counteracts anger" (SCA) proposed by the MPMC theory of emotionality (Zhan et al., 2015, 2017). In this study, we experimentally examined the MPMC hypothesis that "anger counteracts rumination" (ACR) which postulates that rumination may be alleviated by the anger emotion. In Study 1, all participants were initially caused state rumination and then induced anger, joy or neutral mood, the results showed that the rumination-related affect was alleviated after anger induction relative to that after joy or neutral mood induction. In Study 2, female participants with high trait rumination were recruited and divided into two groups for exposure to an anger or neutral emotion intervention, the result indicated that the anger intervention group exhibited a greater decline in trait rumination than the neutral emotion intervention group. These findings provided preliminary evidence supporting the hypothesis of ACR, which suggested a new strategy that employs less cognitive resources to regulating state and trait rumination by inducing anger.

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures

PubMed Central

An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion. PMID:28473791

Anger as "seeing red": evidence for a perceptual association.

PubMed

Fetterman, Adam K; Robinson, Michael D; Meier, Brian P

2012-01-01

Metaphor representation theory contends that people conceptualise their non-perceptual states (e.g., emotion concepts) in perceptual terms. The present research extends this theory to colour manipulations and discrete emotional representations. Two experiments (N = 265) examined whether a red font colour would facilitate anger conceptions, consistent with metaphors referring to anger to "seeing red". Evidence for an implicit anger-red association was robust and emotionally discrete in nature. Further, Experiment 2 examined the directionality of such associations and found that they were asymmetrical: Anger categorisations were faster when a red font colour was involved, but redness categorisations were not faster when an anger-related word was involved. Implications for multiple literatures are discussed.

[Analysis on content of serum monoamine neurotransmitters in macaques with anger-in-induced premenstrual syndrome and liver-qi depression syndrome].

PubMed

Wei, Sheng; Hou, Jin-Liang; Chao, Yu-Bin; Du, Xi-Yang; Zong, Shao-Bo

2012-08-01

To observe the changes in content of monoamine neurotransmitters in the serum of rhesus macaques, and explore the role of serum monoamine neurotransmitters in premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and liver-qi depression induced by anger-in emotion. Social level pressure was applied on 24 female macaques to induce the angry emotional reaction, and then nine of the low-status macaques with anger-in emotional reaction were screened out and were divided into anger-in emotion group, PMS and liver-qi depression group (model group) and Jingqianshu Granule group. Macaques in the last two groups were suffered extruding in a pack cage for inducing PMS liver-qi depression. After 5 d of extruding, experimental animals were evaluated according to the emotional evaluation scale, meanwhile, macaque serum of follicular phase and middle-late luteal phase was collected to analyze the content of serum norepinephrine, dopamine, and 5-hydroxytryptamine. Compared with the normal control group, the scores of depression of the model group and the anger-in emotion group evaluated with emotional evaluation scale were significantly increased (P<0.01, P<0.05); while the score of the model group was significantly higher than that of the anger-in emotion group (P<0.05), and it returned to normal after Jingqianshu Granule treatment. As compared to the normal control group, serum monoamine neurotransmitter levels of the model group and the anger-in emotion group were increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the serum monoamine neurotransmitter levels of the model group were significantly higher than those of the anger-in emotion group (P<0.05), while there was no significant difference when compared with the normal control group after the treatment. Anger-in emotion can induce liver-qi depression syndrome which is related to the changes in monoamine neurotransmitters.

The effect of fear and anger on selective attention.

PubMed

Finucane, Anne M

2011-08-01

This experiment examined the effects of two discrete negative emotions, fear and anger, on selective attention. A within-subjects design was used, and all participants (N = 98) experienced the control, anger, and fear conditions. During each condition, participants viewed a film clip eliciting the target emotion and subsequently completed a flanker task and emotion report. Selective attention costs were assessed by comparing reaction times (RTs) on congruent (baseline) trials with RTs on incongruent trials. There was a significant interaction between emotion condition (control, anger, fear) and flanker type (congruent, incongruent). Contrasts further revealed a significant interaction between emotion and flanker type when comparing RTs in the control and fear conditions, and a marginally significant interaction when comparing RTs in the control and anger conditions. This indicates that selective attention costs were significantly lower in the fear compared to the control condition and were marginally lower in the anger compared with the control condition. Further analysis of participants reporting heightened anger in the anger condition revealed significantly lower selective attention costs during anger compared to a control state. These findings support the general prediction that high arousal negative emotional states inhibit processing of nontarget information and enhance selective attention. This study is the first to show an enhancing effect of anger on selective attention. It also offers convergent evidence to studies that have previously shown an influence of fear on attentional focus using the global-local paradigm. 2011 APA, all rights reserved

A comparison of the effects of a beta-adrenergic blocker and a benzodiazepine upon the recognition of human facial expressions.

PubMed

Zangara, Andrea; Blair, R J R; Curran, H Valerie

2002-08-01

Accumulating evidence from neuropsychological and neuroimaging research suggests that facial expressions are processed by at least partially separable neurocognitive systems. Recent evidence implies that the processing of different facial expressions may also be dissociable pharmacologically by GABAergic and noradrenergic compounds, although no study has directly compared the two types of drugs. The present study therefore directly compared the effects of a benzodiazepine with those of a beta-adrenergic blocker on the ability to recognise emotional expressions. A double-blind, independent group design was used with 45 volunteers to compare the effects of diazepam (15 mg) and metoprolol (50 mg) with matched placebo. Participants were presented with morphed facial expression stimuli and asked to identify which of the six basic emotions (sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise) were portrayed. Control measures of mood, pulse rate and word recall were also taken. Diazepam selectively impaired participants' ability to recognise expressions of both anger and fear but not other emotional expressions. Errors were mainly mistaking fear for surprise and disgust for anger. Metoprolol did not significantly affect facial expression recognition. These findings are interpreted as providing further support for the suggestion that there are dissociable systems responsible for processing emotional expressions. The results may have implications for understanding why 'paradoxical' aggression is sometimes elicited by benzodiazepines and for extending our psychological understanding of the anxiolytic effects of these drugs.

Neural correlates of processing "self-conscious" vs. "basic" emotions.

PubMed

Gilead, Michael; Katzir, Maayan; Eyal, Tal; Liberman, Nira

2016-01-29

Self-conscious emotions are prevalent in our daily lives and play an important role in both normal and pathological behavior. Despite their immense significance, the neural substrates that are involved in the processing of such emotions are surprisingly under-studied. In light of this, we conducted an fMRI study in which participants thought of various personal events which elicited feelings of negative and positive self-conscious (i.e., guilt, pride) or basic (i.e., anger, joy) emotions. We performed a conjunction analysis to investigate the neural correlates associated with processing events that are related to self-conscious vs. basic emotions, irrespective of valence. The results show that processing self-conscious emotions resulted in activation within frontal areas associated with self-processing and self-control, namely, the mPFC extending to the dACC, and within the lateral-dorsal prefrontal cortex. Processing basic emotions resulted in activation throughout relatively phylogenetically-ancient regions of the cortex, namely in visual and tactile processing areas and in the insular cortex. Furthermore, self-conscious emotions differentially activated the mPFC such that the negative self-conscious emotion (guilt) was associated with a more dorsal activation, and the positive self-conscious emotion (pride) was associated with a more ventral activation. We discuss how these results shed light on the nature of mental representations and neural systems involved in self-reflective and affective processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of emotions in depression and aggression

PubMed Central

Malonda, Elisabeth; Samper, Paula

2016-01-01

Background Depression is a broad and heterogeneous diagnostic grouping, central to which is depressed mood or inability to enjoy most activities. Depressive symptoms are frequently accompanied by conduct problems stemming from anger. It is very important to know the interrelation of these emotions very well to be able to help adolescents to manage them more easily. The main aim of this article is to present the problem of interaction between negative affects (emotional instability, anger state and trait, physical and verbal aggression and depression) analyzing the different relationship through the time in spanish sample. Material and Methods The sample included 470 adolescents (192 boys and 225 girls) in a three-wave longitudinal study in Valencia (Spain). The mean age was 14.70 in the first wave. Structural equations modelling was employed to explore two longitudinal models. Results The results show differences based on sex, and that an internalised variable, like emotional instability, is relevant to prevent the appearance of depression directly in girls and also the later appearance of aggression as long as anger mediates, in both boys and girls, so the control of anger becomes an important goal to control the rest of the negative affects. Conclusions This results has consequences in the preparation of all programmes that try to establish an emotional control on adolescents, as not only has to be taken into account as a direct goal the control of externalised emotions like anger, but internalised emotions like emotional instability have to be taken into account also. Furthermore, it is also made apparent that not only the punctual explosions and externalisation of anger have to be worked on, but the temperamental aspects which are the base of anger trait have to be worked on too. Key words:Emotional instability, anger, depression, aggression, negative emotions, adolescence. PMID:27545395

Effects of induced anger in patients with antisocial personality disorder.

PubMed

Lobbestael, J; Arntz, A; Cima, M; Chakhssi, F

2009-04-01

Anger is the main deregulated emotion in patients with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The aim of this study was to examine emotional, cognitive and physiological correlates of anger and compare these between ASPD patients with varying degree of psychopathy (PP) and control groups. Assessment of the effect of anger induction on self-reported emotions and schema modes, psychophysiology and implicit reaction-time tasks measuring self-anger and aggressor-swearword associations. Participants (n=147) were patients with DSM-IV antisocial (n=21), borderline (n=45) and cluster C personality disorder (n=46) and non-patient controls (n=35). Groups did not differ in self-reported anger. ASPD patients displayed a decrease in heart rate and systolic blood pressure (SBP) and stronger implicit self-anger associations. ASPD patients scoring low on affective PP reported less negative emotions and displayed a greater decrease in diastolic blood pressure (DBP). ASPD patients did not display a deviant self-reported anger but physiological hyporesponsivity and cognitive hyper-responsivity. This ASPD anger response might reflect a controlled predatory-like fight preparation.

Functional neuroimaging of emotional learning and autonomic reactions.

PubMed

Peper, Martin; Herpers, Martin; Spreer, Joachim; Hennig, Jürgen; Zentner, Josef

2006-06-01

This article provides a selective overview of the functional neuroimaging literature with an emphasis on emotional activation processes. Emotions are fast and flexible response systems that provide basic tendencies for adaptive action. From the range of involved component functions, we first discuss selected automatic mechanisms that control basic adaptational changes. Second, we illustrate how neuroimaging work has contributed to the mapping of the network components associated with basic emotion families (fear, anger, disgust, happiness), and secondary dimensional concepts that organise the meaning space for subjective experience and verbal labels (emotional valence, activity/intensity, approach/withdrawal, etc.). Third, results and methodological difficulties are discussed in view of own neuroimaging experiments that investigated the component functions involved in emotional learning. The amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and striatum form a network of reciprocal connections that show topographically distinct patterns of activity as a correlate of up and down regulation processes during an emotional episode. Emotional modulations of other brain systems have attracted recent research interests. Emotional neuroimaging calls for more representative designs that highlight the modulatory influences of regulation strategies and socio-cultural factors responsible for inhibitory control and extinction. We conclude by emphasising the relevance of the temporal process dynamics of emotional activations that may provide improved prediction of individual differences in emotionality.

The Joint Contribution of Activation and Inhibition in Moderating Carryover Effects of Anger on Social Judgment

PubMed Central

Fiori, Marina; Shuman, Vera

2017-01-01

Carryover effects of emotions that lead to biases in social judgments are commonly observed. We suggest that such effects may be influenced by the ability to engage or disengage attention from emotional stimuli. We assessed the ability to activate and inhibit attention to anger stimuli, experimentally induced anger in a demanding task, and measured social judgment toward an ambiguous target. Results show that higher activation and higher inhibition of anger-related information predicted more biased evaluations of the ambiguous target when individuals were experiencing anger, but not in an emotionally neutral condition. Interestingly, the effect of activation and inhibition in the anger condition emerged only when such variables were entered simultaneously in the regression model, indicating that they had an additive effect in predicting carryover effects of anger on social judgement. Results are consistent with a cooperative suppression effect (Conger, 1974) of activation and inhibition and may be explained by either an increased accessibility of anger-related cues leading to more biased social judgments, or by an instance in which being good at engaging in and disengaging attention from emotional cues might have depleted participants’ resources making carryover effects of anger more likely to occur. Ultimately, the finding highlight that individual differences in attentional processes are important moderators for carryover effects of emotions. PMID:28993743

Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion.

PubMed

Russell, James A

2003-01-01

At the heart of emotion, mood, and any other emotionally charged event are states experienced as simply feeling good or bad, energized or enervated. These states--called core affect--influence reflexes, perception, cognition, and behavior and are influenced by many causes internal and external, but people have no direct access to these causal connections. Core affect can therefore be experienced as free-floating (mood) or can be attributed to some cause (and thereby begin an emotional episode). These basic processes spawn a broad framework that includes perception of the core-affect-altering properties of stimuli, motives, empathy, emotional meta-experience, and affect versus emotion regulation; it accounts for prototypical emotional episodes, such as fear and anger, as core affect attributed to something plus various nonemotional processes.

Regulating Rumination by Anger: Evidence for the Mutual Promotion and Counteraction (MPMC) Theory of Emotionality

PubMed Central

Zhan, Jun; Tang, Fan; He, Mei; Fan, Jin; Xiao, Jing; Liu, Chang; Luo, Jing

2017-01-01

Unlike the strategy of cognitive regulation that relies heavily on the top-down control function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which was recently found may be critically impaired in stressful situations, traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine views different types of emotionality as having mutual promotion and counteraction (MPMC) relationships, implying a novel approach that requires less cognition to emotional regulation. Actually, our previous studies have indicated that anger responses could be successfully regulated via the induction of sadness, and this efficiency could not be influenced by stress, thus providing evidences for the hypothesis of “sadness counteracts anger” (SCA) proposed by the MPMC theory of emotionality (Zhan et al., 2015, 2017). In this study, we experimentally examined the MPMC hypothesis that “anger counteracts rumination” (ACR) which postulates that rumination may be alleviated by the anger emotion. In Study 1, all participants were initially caused state rumination and then induced anger, joy or neutral mood, the results showed that the rumination-related affect was alleviated after anger induction relative to that after joy or neutral mood induction. In Study 2, female participants with high trait rumination were recruited and divided into two groups for exposure to an anger or neutral emotion intervention, the result indicated that the anger intervention group exhibited a greater decline in trait rumination than the neutral emotion intervention group. These findings provided preliminary evidence supporting the hypothesis of ACR, which suggested a new strategy that employs less cognitive resources to regulating state and trait rumination by inducing anger. PMID:29249998

Awareness and regulation of emotions in deaf children.

PubMed

Rieffe, Carolien

2012-11-01

In this study, deaf children's understanding of their own emotions was compared with that of hearing peers. Twenty-six deaf children (mean age 11 years) and 26 hearing children, matched for age and gender, were presented with various tasks that tap into their emotion awareness and regulation (coping) regarding the four basic emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, and fear). The findings suggest that deaf children have no difficulties in identifying their own basic emotions and the elicitors, or multiple emotions of opposite valence (happy and sad). Yet, they did show an impaired capacity to differentiate between their own emotions within the negative spectrum, which suggests a more generic evaluation of the situation. Deaf children's emotion regulation strategies showed a strong preference for approaching the situation at hand, but almost no deaf child reported the use of an avoidant tactic in order to diminish the negative impact of the situation. Overall, deaf children's emotion regulation strategies seemed less effective than those of their hearing peers. The implications for deaf children's emotional development are discussed. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Teachers' emotional experiences and exhaustion as predictors of emotional labor in the classroom: an experience sampling study.

PubMed

Keller, Melanie M; Chang, Mei-Lin; Becker, Eva S; Goetz, Thomas; Frenzel, Anne C

2014-01-01

Emotional exhaustion (EE) is the core component in the study of teacher burnout, with significant impact on teachers' professional lives. Yet, its relation to teachers' emotional experiences and emotional labor (EL) during instruction remains unclear. Thirty-nine German secondary teachers were surveyed about their EE (trait), and via the experience sampling method on their momentary (state; N = 794) emotional experiences (enjoyment, anxiety, anger) and momentary EL (suppression, faking). Teachers reported that in 99 and 39% of all lessons, they experienced enjoyment and anger, respectively, whereas they experienced anxiety less frequently. Teachers reported suppressing or faking their emotions during roughly a third of all lessons. Furthermore, EE was reflected in teachers' decreased experiences of enjoyment and increased experiences of anger. On an intra-individual level, all three emotions predict EL, whereas on an inter-individual level, only anger evokes EL. Explained variances in EL (within: 39%, between: 67%) stress the relevance of emotions in teaching and within the context of teacher burnout. Beyond implying the importance of reducing anger, our findings suggest the potential of enjoyment lessening EL and thereby reducing teacher burnout.

Children's Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions Through Photographs and Drawings.

PubMed

Brechet, Claire

2017-01-01

The author's purpose was to examine children's recognition of emotional facial expressions, by comparing two types of stimulus: photographs and drawings. The author aimed to investigate whether drawings could be considered as a more evocative material than photographs, as a function of age and emotion. Five- and 7-year-old children were presented with photographs and drawings displaying facial expressions of 4 basic emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) and were asked to perform a matching task by pointing to the face corresponding to the target emotion labeled by the experimenter. The photographs we used were selected from the Radboud Faces Database and the drawings were designed on the basis of both the facial components involved in the expression of these emotions and the graphic cues children tend to use when asked to depict these emotions in their own drawings. Our results show that drawings are better recognized than photographs, for sadness, anger, and fear (with no difference for happiness, due to a ceiling effect). And that the difference between the 2 types of stimuli tends to be more important for 5-year-olds compared to 7-year-olds. These results are discussed in view of their implications, both for future research and for practical application.

Basic Emotions in the Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL BE): New Method of Classifying Emotional Stimuli.

PubMed

Wierzba, Małgorzata; Riegel, Monika; Wypych, Marek; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Turnau, Paweł; Grabowska, Anna; Marchewka, Artur

2015-01-01

The Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL) has recently been introduced as a standardized database of Polish words suitable for studying various aspects of language and emotions. Though the NAWL was originally based on the most commonly used dimensional approach, it is not the only way of studying emotions. Another framework is based on discrete emotional categories. Since the two perspectives are recognized as complementary, the aim of the present study was to supplement the NAWL database by the addition of categories corresponding to basic emotions. Thus, 2902 Polish words from the NAWL were presented to 265 subjects, who were instructed to rate them according to the intensity of each of the five basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. The general characteristics of the present word database, as well as the relationships between the studied variables are shown to be consistent with typical patterns found in previous studies using similar databases for different languages. Here we present the Basic Emotions in the Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL BE) as a database of verbal material suitable for highly controlled experimental research. To make the NAWL more convenient to use, we introduce a comprehensive method of classifying stimuli to basic emotion categories. We discuss the advantages of our method in comparison to other methods of classification. Additionally, we provide an interactive online tool (http://exp.lobi.nencki.gov.pl/nawl-analysis) to help researchers browse and interactively generate classes of stimuli to meet their specific requirements.

Basic Emotions in the Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL BE): New Method of Classifying Emotional Stimuli

PubMed Central

Wierzba, Małgorzata; Riegel, Monika; Wypych, Marek; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Turnau, Paweł; Grabowska, Anna; Marchewka, Artur

2015-01-01

The Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL) has recently been introduced as a standardized database of Polish words suitable for studying various aspects of language and emotions. Though the NAWL was originally based on the most commonly used dimensional approach, it is not the only way of studying emotions. Another framework is based on discrete emotional categories. Since the two perspectives are recognized as complementary, the aim of the present study was to supplement the NAWL database by the addition of categories corresponding to basic emotions. Thus, 2902 Polish words from the NAWL were presented to 265 subjects, who were instructed to rate them according to the intensity of each of the five basic emotions: happiness, anger, sadness, fear and disgust. The general characteristics of the present word database, as well as the relationships between the studied variables are shown to be consistent with typical patterns found in previous studies using similar databases for different languages. Here we present the Basic Emotions in the Nencki Affective Word List (NAWL BE) as a database of verbal material suitable for highly controlled experimental research. To make the NAWL more convenient to use, we introduce a comprehensive method of classifying stimuli to basic emotion categories. We discuss the advantages of our method in comparison to other methods of classification. Additionally, we provide an interactive online tool (http://exp.lobi.nencki.gov.pl/nawl-analysis) to help researchers browse and interactively generate classes of stimuli to meet their specific requirements. PMID:26148193

Trait Dominance Promotes Reflexive Staring at Masked Angry Body Postures

PubMed Central

Hortensius, Ruud; van Honk, Jack; de Gelder, Beatrice; Terburg, David

2014-01-01

It has been shown that dominant individuals sustain eye-contact when non-consciously confronted with angry faces, suggesting reflexive mechanisms underlying dominance behaviors. However, dominance and submission can be conveyed and provoked by means of not only facial but also bodily features. So far few studies have investigated the interplay of body postures with personality traits and behavior, despite the biological relevance and ecological validity of these postures. Here we investigate whether non-conscious exposure to bodily expressions of anger evokes reflex-like dominance behavior. In an interactive eye-tracking experiment thirty-two participants completed three social dominance tasks with angry, happy and neutral facial, bodily and face and body compound expressions that were masked from consciousness. We confirmed our predictions of slower gaze-aversion from both non-conscious bodily and compound expressions of anger compared to happiness in high dominant individuals. Results from a follow-up experiment suggest that the dominance behavior triggered by exposure to bodily anger occurs with basic detection of the category, but not recognition of the emotional content. Together these results suggest that dominant staring behavior is reflexively driven by non-conscious perception of the emotional content and triggered by not only facial but also bodily expression of anger. PMID:25549321

Dynamic Changes in Amygdala Psychophysiological Connectivity Reveal Distinct Neural Networks for Facial Expressions of Basic Emotions.

PubMed

Diano, Matteo; Tamietto, Marco; Celeghin, Alessia; Weiskrantz, Lawrence; Tatu, Mona-Karina; Bagnis, Arianna; Duca, Sergio; Geminiani, Giuliano; Cauda, Franco; Costa, Tommaso

2017-03-27

The quest to characterize the neural signature distinctive of different basic emotions has recently come under renewed scrutiny. Here we investigated whether facial expressions of different basic emotions modulate the functional connectivity of the amygdala with the rest of the brain. To this end, we presented seventeen healthy participants (8 females) with facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and emotional neutrality and analyzed amygdala's psychophysiological interaction (PPI). In fact, PPI can reveal how inter-regional amygdala communications change dynamically depending on perception of various emotional expressions to recruit different brain networks, compared to the functional interactions it entertains during perception of neutral expressions. We found that for each emotion the amygdala recruited a distinctive and spatially distributed set of structures to interact with. These changes in amygdala connectional patters characterize the dynamic signature prototypical of individual emotion processing, and seemingly represent a neural mechanism that serves to implement the distinctive influence that each emotion exerts on perceptual, cognitive, and motor responses. Besides these differences, all emotions enhanced amygdala functional integration with premotor cortices compared to neutral faces. The present findings thus concur to reconceptualise the structure-function relation between brain-emotion from the traditional one-to-one mapping toward a network-based and dynamic perspective.

Anger and guilt in treatment for chronic posttraumatic stress disorder.

PubMed

Clifton, Erin G; Feeny, Norah C; Zoellner, Lori A

2017-03-01

Feelings of anger and guilt are important to consider when treating PTSD as they are related to higher PTSD severity and may be related to avoidance during treatment. Avoidance may impede emotional engagement, the process of connecting with distressing, fear-related emotions during imaginal exposure, which is considered an important mechanism for successful PTSD treatment in prolonged exposure (PE). Yet, little research has examined possible complications in achieving emotional engagement, such as anger and guilt. The present study utilized data from 116 individuals with PTSD who received PE to investigate whether anger and guilt were associated with poorer emotional engagement, as captured by pre, peak, post, and mean subjective units of distress (SUDs), during the initial imaginal exposure, and whether anger and guilt predicted worse treatment outcome generally and as a result of lessened emotional engagement. Neither initial anger nor guilt hindered engagement nor predicted worse outcome. Contrary to hypotheses, higher guilt was predictive of greater anticipatory distress and slightly better PTSD outcome. The relationship between pre-treatment guilt cognitions and post-treatment PTSD severity was not mediated by engagement. This study used a trauma-specific measure of guilt and general measure for anger, however both are commonly used. In addition, this study examined emotional engagement during imaginal exposure to the exclusion of engagement with other therapy components, such as in vivo exposure. These findings help dispel concerns that those with higher anger and guilt will avoid emotionally engaging during the initial imaginal exposure due to feeling distressed by intense negative emotionality. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affect recognition across manic and euthymic phases of bipolar disorder in Han-Chinese patients.

PubMed

Pan, Yi-Ju; Tseng, Huai-Hsuan; Liu, Shi-Kai

2013-11-01

Patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have affect recognition deficits. Whether affect recognition deficits constitute a state or trait marker of BD has great etiopathological significance. The current study aims to explore the interrelationships between affect recognition and basic neurocognitive functions for patients with BD across different mood states, using the Diagnostic Analysis of Non-Verbal Accuracy-2, Taiwanese version (DANVA-2-TW) as the index measure for affect recognition. To our knowledge, this is the first study examining affect recognition deficits of BPD across mood states in the Han Chinese population. Twenty-nine manic patients, 16 remitted patients with BD, and 40 control subjects are included in the study. Distinct association patterns between affect recognition and neurocognitive functions are demonstrated for patients with BD and control subjects, implicating alternations in emotion associated neurocognitive processing. Compared to control subjects, manic patients but not remitted subjects perform significantly worse in the recognition of negative emotions as a whole and specifically anger, after adjusting for differences in general intellectual ability and basic neurocognitive functions. Affect recognition deficit may be a relatively independent impairment in BD rather than consequences arising from deficits in other basic neurocognition. The impairments of manic patients in the recognition of negative emotions, specifically anger, may further our understanding of core clinical psychopathology of BD and have implications in treating bipolar patients across distinct mood phases. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Anger and Sadness Perception in Clinically Referred Preschoolers: Emotion Processes and Externalizing Behavior Symptoms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Sarah E.; Boekamp, John R.; McConville, David W.; Wheeler, Elizabeth E.

2010-01-01

This study examined emotion perception processes in preschool aged children presenting with clinically significant emotional and behavior problems, with emphasis on sadness perception accuracy (i.e., the ability to correctly identify sadness from expressive and situational cues) and anger perception bias (i.e., the tendency to perceive anger in…

Do community and autonomy moral violations elicit different emotions?

PubMed

Kollareth, Dolichan; Kikutani, Mariko; Shirai, Mariko; Russell, James A

2018-06-11

According to one important set of theories, different domains of immorality are linked to different discrete emotions-panculturally. Violations against the community elicit contempt, whereas violations against an individual elicit anger. To test this theory, American, Indian and Japanese participants (N = 480) indicated contempt and anger reactions (with verbal rating and face selection) to both the types of immorality. To remedy method problems in previous research, community and autonomy violations were created for the same story-frame, by varying the target to be either the community or an individual. Community and autonomy violations did not differ significantly in the emotion elicited: overall, both types of violations elicited more anger than contempt (and more negative emotion of any kind than positive emotion). By verbal rating, Americans and Indians reported more anger than contempt for both types of violation, whereas Japanese reported more contempt than anger for both types. By face selection, the three cultural groups selected anger more than contempt for both types of violation. The results speak against defining distinct domains of morality by their association with distinct emotions. © 2018 International Union of Psychological Science.

Emotions in “the world”: cultural practices, products, and meanings of anger and shame in two individualist cultures

PubMed Central

Boiger, Michael; Deyne, Simon De; Mesquita, Batja

2013-01-01

Three studies tested the idea that people’s cultural worlds are structured in ways that promote and highlight emotions and emotional responses that are beneficial in achieving central goals in their culture. Based on the idea that U.S. Americans strive for competitive individualism, while (Dutch-speaking) Belgians favor a more egalitarian variant of individualism, we predicted that anger and shame, as well as their associated responses, would be beneficial to different extents in these two cultural contexts. A questionnaire study found that cultural practices promote beneficial emotions (anger in the United States, shame in Belgium) and avoid harmful emotions (shame in the United States): emotional interactions were perceived to occur more or less frequently to the extent that they elicited culturally beneficial or harmful emotions. Similarly, a cultural product analysis showed that popular children’s books from the United States and Belgium tend to portray culturally beneficial emotions more than culturally harmful emotions. Finally, a word-association study of the shared cultural meanings surrounding anger and shame provided commensurate evidence at the level of the associated response. In each language network, anger and shame were imbued with meanings that reflected the cultural significance of the emotion: while culturally consistent emotions carried relatively stronger connotations of emotional yielding (e.g., giving in to anger and aggressing against the offender in the United States), culturally inconsistent emotions carried relatively stronger connotations of emotional containment (e.g., a stronger emphasis on suppressing or transforming shame in the United States). PMID:24367340

Appraisal underpinnings of affective chronometry: the role of appraisals in emotion habituation.

PubMed

Tong, Eddie M W; Bishop, George D; Enkelmann, Hwee Chong; Why, Yong Peng; Diong, Siew Maan; Khader, Majeed; Ang, Jansen

2009-08-01

In light of the lack of studies examining the cognitive components of affective chronometry, this research examined the appraisals associated with emotion habituation, using anger as the emotion of focus. Anger and its appraisals were assessed repeatedly over a day in the participants' naturalistic contexts. The trajectory of decline in anger over time after its first appearance was found to be a function of chronic coping styles. More importantly, the trajectories of anger-related appraisals generally corresponded to that of anger and were also moderated by coping styles in ways consistent with the moderating effects of coping styles on anger. Implications of these results for affective chronometry research and for appraisal research are discussed.

The relationship between anger, childhood maltreatment, and emotion regulation difficulties in intimate partner and non-intimate partner violent offenders.

PubMed

Gardner, Frank L; Moore, Zella E; Dettore, Melissa

2014-11-01

Violence is a significant public health problem, which has been linked to the primary emotion of anger. While several theoretical models have attempted to understand the relationship between anger and violence, empirical evidence to support these models and the psychological treatments that follow from them have been lacking. A newer model for understanding the relationship between anger and violence emphasizes the dual diatheses of childhood maltreatment and difficulties in emotion regulation as central to understanding the anger-violence relationship. Investigating the relationship between childhood maltreatment and anger experience and expression among 88 violent offenders referred for intimate partner or non-intimate partner violent offenses, results herein confirm that substantial childhood maltreatment is found among violent offenders, with differing patterns of abuse noted across groups. Furthermore, mediational analyses indicate that difficulties in emotion regulation mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and various aspects of anger experience and expression among both types of offenders. © The Author(s) 2014.

Attentional Bias to Negative Emotion as a Function of Approach and Withdrawal Anger Styles: An ERP Investigation

PubMed Central

Stewart, Jennifer L.; Silton, Rebecca Levin; Sass, Sarah M.; Fisher, Joscelyn E.; Edgar, J. Christopher; Heller, Wendy; Miller, Gregory A.

2010-01-01

Although models of emotion have focused on the relationship between anger and approach motivation associated with aggression, anger is also related to withdrawal motivation. Anger-out and anger-in styles are associated with psychopathology and may disrupt the control of attention within the context of negatively valenced information. The present study used event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine whether anger styles uniquely predict attentional bias to negative stimuli during an emotion-word Stroop task. High anger-out predicted larger N200, P300, and N400 to negative words, suggesting that aggressive individuals exert more effort to override attention to negative information. In contrast, high anger-in predicted smaller N400 amplitude to negative words, indicating that negative information may be readily available (primed) for anger suppressors, requiring fewer resources. Individuals with an anger-out style might benefit from being directed away from provocative stimuli that might otherwise consume their attention and foster overt aggression. Findings indicating that anger-out and anger-in were associated with divergent patterns of brain activity provide support for distinguishing approach- and withdrawal-related anger styles. PMID:20109502

Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal.

PubMed

Jack, Rachael E; Garrod, Oliver G B; Yu, Hui; Caldara, Roberto; Schyns, Philippe G

2012-05-08

Since Darwin's seminal works, the universality of facial expressions of emotion has remained one of the longest standing debates in the biological and social sciences. Briefly stated, the universality hypothesis claims that all humans communicate six basic internal emotional states (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) using the same facial movements by virtue of their biological and evolutionary origins [Susskind JM, et al. (2008) Nat Neurosci 11:843-850]. Here, we refute this assumed universality. Using a unique computer graphics platform that combines generative grammars [Chomsky N (1965) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA] with visual perception, we accessed the mind's eye of 30 Western and Eastern culture individuals and reconstructed their mental representations of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Cross-cultural comparisons of the mental representations challenge universality on two separate counts. First, whereas Westerners represent each of the six basic emotions with a distinct set of facial movements common to the group, Easterners do not. Second, Easterners represent emotional intensity with distinctive dynamic eye activity. By refuting the long-standing universality hypothesis, our data highlight the powerful influence of culture on shaping basic behaviors once considered biologically hardwired. Consequently, our data open a unique nature-nurture debate across broad fields from evolutionary psychology and social neuroscience to social networking via digital avatars.

Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal

PubMed Central

Jack, Rachael E.; Garrod, Oliver G. B.; Yu, Hui; Caldara, Roberto; Schyns, Philippe G.

2012-01-01

Since Darwin’s seminal works, the universality of facial expressions of emotion has remained one of the longest standing debates in the biological and social sciences. Briefly stated, the universality hypothesis claims that all humans communicate six basic internal emotional states (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) using the same facial movements by virtue of their biological and evolutionary origins [Susskind JM, et al. (2008) Nat Neurosci 11:843–850]. Here, we refute this assumed universality. Using a unique computer graphics platform that combines generative grammars [Chomsky N (1965) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA] with visual perception, we accessed the mind’s eye of 30 Western and Eastern culture individuals and reconstructed their mental representations of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Cross-cultural comparisons of the mental representations challenge universality on two separate counts. First, whereas Westerners represent each of the six basic emotions with a distinct set of facial movements common to the group, Easterners do not. Second, Easterners represent emotional intensity with distinctive dynamic eye activity. By refuting the long-standing universality hypothesis, our data highlight the powerful influence of culture on shaping basic behaviors once considered biologically hardwired. Consequently, our data open a unique nature–nurture debate across broad fields from evolutionary psychology and social neuroscience to social networking via digital avatars. PMID:22509011

Using Drawing as Intervention with Children for In-Service Preschool Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, I Ju; Liu, Chu Chih

2010-01-01

This study provides a basic overview of in-service preschool teachers using drawing as intervention with children. Art therapy is used more often for the smaller children who have more difficulty to describe their emotions and feelings in recognizing words, such as anger, resentment, and different kind of abuses. As a matter of fact, the drawing…

Emotional Lessons: Out on the Tundra, Kids Learn To Better Understand Their Own and Others' Feelings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherman, Lee

1999-01-01

A nationally acclaimed antiviolence program, Second Step teaches three basic skills needed for living peacefully in society: empathy, impulse control, and anger management. In Bethel (Alaska), where student gunfire killed a student and principal in 1997, Second Step is used enthusiastically, having been modified to fit Yupik Eskimo culture and…

Emotional Expressivity and Emotion Regulation: Relation to Academic Functioning among Elementary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwon, Kyongboon; Hanrahan, Amanda R.; Kupzyk, Kevin A.

2017-01-01

We examined emotional expressivity (i.e., happiness, sadness, and anger) and emotion regulation (regulation of exuberance, sadness, and anger) as they relate to academic functioning (motivation, engagement, and achievement). Also, we tested the premise that emotional expressivity and emotion regulation are indirectly associated with achievement…

Teachers’ emotional experiences and exhaustion as predictors of emotional labor in the classroom: an experience sampling study

PubMed Central

Keller, Melanie M.; Chang, Mei-Lin; Becker, Eva S.; Goetz, Thomas; Frenzel, Anne C.

2014-01-01

Emotional exhaustion (EE) is the core component in the study of teacher burnout, with significant impact on teachers’ professional lives. Yet, its relation to teachers’ emotional experiences and emotional labor (EL) during instruction remains unclear. Thirty-nine German secondary teachers were surveyed about their EE (trait), and via the experience sampling method on their momentary (state; N = 794) emotional experiences (enjoyment, anxiety, anger) and momentary EL (suppression, faking). Teachers reported that in 99 and 39% of all lessons, they experienced enjoyment and anger, respectively, whereas they experienced anxiety less frequently. Teachers reported suppressing or faking their emotions during roughly a third of all lessons. Furthermore, EE was reflected in teachers’ decreased experiences of enjoyment and increased experiences of anger. On an intra-individual level, all three emotions predict EL, whereas on an inter-individual level, only anger evokes EL. Explained variances in EL (within: 39%, between: 67%) stress the relevance of emotions in teaching and within the context of teacher burnout. Beyond implying the importance of reducing anger, our findings suggest the potential of enjoyment lessening EL and thereby reducing teacher burnout. PMID:25566124

Beyond Essentialism: Cultural Differences in Emotions Revisited.

PubMed

Boiger, Michael; Ceulemans, Eva; De Leersnyder, Jozefien; Uchida, Yukiko; Norasakkunkit, Vinai; Mesquita, Batja

2018-02-01

The current research offers an alternative to essentialism for studying cultural variation in emotional experience. Rather than assuming that individuals always experience an emotion in the same way, our starting point was that the experience of an emotion like anger or shame may vary from one instance to another. We expected to find different anger and shame experience types, that is, groups of people who differ in the instances of anger and shame that they experience. We proposed that studying cultural differences in emotional experience means studying differences in the distribution of these types across cultural contexts: There should be systematic differences in the types that are most common in each culture. Students from the United States, Japan, and Belgium (N = 928) indicated their emotional experiences in terms of appraisals and action tendencies in response to 15 hypothetical anger or shame situations. Using an inductive clustering approach, we identified anger and shame types who were characterized by different patterns of anger and shame experience. As expected, we found that the distribution of these types differed across the three cultural contexts: Of the two anger types, one was common in Japan and one in the United States and Belgium; the three shame types were each most prevalent in a different cultural context. Participants' anger and shame types were primarily predicted by their culture of origin (with an accuracy of 72.3% for anger and 74.0% for shame) and not, or much less, by their ethnic origin, socioeconomic status, gender, self-construal, or personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Anger responses to psychosocial stress predict heart rate and cortisol stress responses in men but not women.

PubMed

Lupis, Sarah B; Lerman, Michelle; Wolf, Jutta M

2014-11-01

While previous research has suggested that anger and fear responses to stress are linked to distinct sympathetic nervous system (SNS) stress responses, little is known about how these emotions predict hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. Further, earlier research primarily relied on retrospective self-report of emotion. The current study aimed at addressing both issues in male and female individuals by assessing the role of anger and fear in predicting heart rate and cortisol stress responses using both self-report and facial coding analysis to assess emotion responses. We exposed 32 healthy students (18 female; 19.6±1.7 yr) to an acute psychosocial stress paradigm (TSST) and measured heart rate and salivary cortisol levels throughout the protocol. Anger and fear before and after stress exposure was assessed by self-report, and video recordings of the TSST were assessed by a certified facial coder to determine emotion expression (FACS). Self-reported emotions and emotion expressions did not correlate (all p>.23). Increases in self-reported fear predicted blunted cortisol responses in men (β=0.41, p=.04). Also for men, longer durations of anger expression predicted exaggerated cortisol responses (β=0.67 p=.004), and more anger incidences predicted exaggerated cortisol and heart rate responses (β=0.51, p=.033; β=0.46, p=.066, resp.). Anger and fear did not predict SNS or HPA activity for females (all p>.23). The current differential self-report and facial coding findings support the use of multiple modes of emotion assessment. Particularly, FACS but not self-report revealed a robust anger-stress association that could have important downstream health effects for men. For women, future research may clarify the role of other emotions, such as self-conscious expressions of shame, for physiological stress responses. A better understanding of the emotion-stress link may contribute to behavioral interventions targeting health-promoting ways of responding emotionally to stress. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anger responses to psychosocial stress predict heart rate and cortisol stress responses in men but not women

PubMed Central

Lupis, Sarah B.; Lerman, Michelle; Wolf, Jutta M.

2014-01-01

While previous research has suggested that anger and fear responses to stress are linked to distinct sympathetic nervous system (SNS) stress responses, little is known about how these emotions predict hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity. Further, earlier research primarily relied on retrospective self-report of emotion. The current study aimed at addressing both issues in male and female individuals by assessing the role of anger and fear in predicting heart rate and cortisol stress responses using both self-report and facial coding analysis to assess emotion responses. We exposed 32 healthy students (18 female; 19.6+/−1.7 yrs.) to an acute psychosocial stress paradigm (TSST) and measured heart rate and salivary cortisol levels throughout the protocol. Anger and fear before and after stress exposure was assessed by self-report, and video recordings of the TSST were assessed by a certified facial coder to determine emotion expression (FACS). Self-reported emotions and emotion expressions did not correlate (all p > .23). Increases in self-reported fear predicted blunted cortisol responses in men (β = 0.41, p = .04). Also for men, longer durations of anger expression predicted exaggerated cortisol responses (β = 0.67 p = .004), and more anger incidences predicted exaggerated cortisol and heart rate responses (β = 0.51, p = .033; β = 0.46, p = .066, resp.). Anger and fear did not predict SNS or HPA activity for females (all p > .23). The current differential self-report and facial coding findings support the use of multiple modes of emotion assessment. Particularly, FACS but not self-report revealed a robust anger-stress association that could have important downstream health effects for men. For women, future research may clarify the role of other emotions, such as self-conscious expressions of shame, for physiological stress responses. A better understanding of the emotion-stress link may contribute to behavioral interventions targeting health-promoting ways of responding emotionally to stress. PMID:25064831

Fanning the flames of prejudice: the influence of specific incidental emotions on implicit prejudice.

PubMed

Dasgupta, Nilanjana; Desteno, David; Williams, Lisa A; Hunsinger, Matthew

2009-08-01

Three experiments examined the impact of incidental emotions on implicit intergroup evaluations. Experiment 1 demonstrated that for unknown social groups, two negative emotions that are broadly applicable to intergroup conflict (anger and disgust) both created implicit bias where none had existed before. However, for known groups about which perceivers had prior knowledge, emotions increased implicit prejudice only if the induced emotion was applicable to the outgroup stereotype. Disgust increased bias against disgust-relevant groups (e.g., homosexuals) but anger did not (Experiment 2); anger increased bias against anger-relevant groups (e.g., Arabs) but disgust did not (Experiment 3). Consistent with functional theories of emotion, these findings suggest that negative intergroup emotions signal specific types of threat. If the emotion-specific threat is applicable to prior expectations of a group, the emotion ratchets up implicit prejudice toward that group. However, if the emotion-specific threat is not applicable to the target group, evaluations remain unchanged. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Advanced Parkinson disease patients have impairment in prosody processing.

PubMed

Albuquerque, Luisa; Martins, Maurício; Coelho, Miguel; Guedes, Leonor; Ferreira, Joaquim J; Rosa, Mário; Martins, Isabel Pavão

2016-01-01

The ability to recognize and interpret emotions in others is a crucial prerequisite of adequate social behavior. Impairments in emotion processing have been reported from the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). This study aims to characterize emotion recognition in advanced Parkinson's disease (APD) candidates for deep-brain stimulation and to compare emotion recognition abilities in visual and auditory domains. APD patients, defined as those with levodopa-induced motor complications (N = 42), and healthy controls (N = 43) matched by gender, age, and educational level, undertook the Comprehensive Affect Testing System (CATS), a battery that evaluates recognition of seven basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and neutral) on facial expressions and four emotions on prosody (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear). APD patients were assessed during the "ON" state. Group performance was compared with independent-samples t tests. Compared to controls, APD had significantly lower scores on the discrimination and naming of emotions in prosody, and visual discrimination of neutral faces, but no significant differences in visual emotional tasks. The contrasting performance in emotional processing between visual and auditory stimuli suggests that APD candidates for surgery have either a selective difficulty in recognizing emotions in prosody or a general defect in prosody processing. Studies investigating early-stage PD, and the effect of subcortical lesions in prosody processing, favor the latter interpretation. Further research is needed to understand these deficits in emotional prosody recognition and their possible contribution to later behavioral or neuropsychiatric manifestations of PD.

Relative preservation of the recognition of positive facial expression "happiness" in Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Maki, Yohko; Yoshida, Hiroshi; Yamaguchi, Tomoharu; Yamaguchi, Haruyasu

2013-01-01

Positivity recognition bias has been reported for facial expression as well as memory and visual stimuli in aged individuals, whereas emotional facial recognition in Alzheimer disease (AD) patients is controversial, with possible involvement of confounding factors such as deficits in spatial processing of non-emotional facial features and in verbal processing to express emotions. Thus, we examined whether recognition of positive facial expressions was preserved in AD patients, by adapting a new method that eliminated the influences of these confounding factors. Sensitivity of six basic facial expressions (happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, and fear) was evaluated in 12 outpatients with mild AD, 17 aged normal controls (ANC), and 25 young normal controls (YNC). To eliminate the factors related to non-emotional facial features, averaged faces were prepared as stimuli. To eliminate the factors related to verbal processing, the participants were required to match the images of stimulus and answer, avoiding the use of verbal labels. In recognition of happiness, there was no difference in sensitivity between YNC and ANC, and between ANC and AD patients. AD patients were less sensitive than ANC in recognition of sadness, surprise, and anger. ANC were less sensitive than YNC in recognition of surprise, anger, and disgust. Within the AD patient group, sensitivity of happiness was significantly higher than those of the other five expressions. In AD patient, recognition of happiness was relatively preserved; recognition of happiness was most sensitive and was preserved against the influences of age and disease.

A novel surveillance approach for disaster mental health

PubMed Central

Shankardass, Ketan; Subramanian, S. V.; Galea, Sandro

2017-01-01

Background Disasters have substantial consequences for population mental health. Social media data present an opportunity for mental health surveillance after disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs. We aimed to 1) identify specific basic emotions from Twitter for the greater New York City area during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, and to 2) detect and map spatial temporal clusters representing excess risk of these emotions. Methods We applied an advanced sentiment analysis on 344,957 Twitter tweets in the study area over eleven days, from October 22 to November 1, 2012, to extract basic emotions, a space-time scan statistic (SaTScan) and a geographic information system (QGIS) to detect and map excess risk of these emotions. Results Sadness and disgust were among the most prominent emotions identified. Furthermore, we noted 24 spatial clusters of excess risk of basic emotions over time: Four for anger, one for confusion, three for disgust, five for fear, five for sadness, and six for surprise. Of these, anger, confusion, disgust and fear clusters appeared pre disaster, a cluster of surprise was found peri disaster, and a cluster of sadness emerged post disaster. Conclusions We proposed a novel syndromic surveillance approach for mental health based on social media data that may support conventional approaches by providing useful additional information in the context of disaster. We showed that excess risk of multiple basic emotions could be mapped in space and time as a step towards anticipating acute stress in the population and identifying community mental health need rapidly and efficiently in the aftermath of disaster. More studies are needed to better control for bias, identify associations with reliable and valid instruments measuring mental health, and to explore computational methods for continued model-fitting, causal relationships, and ongoing evaluation. Our study may be a starting point also for more fully elaborated models that can either prospectively detect mental health risk using real-time social media data or detect excess risk of emotional reactions in areas that lack efficient infrastructure during and after disasters. As such, social media data may be used for mental health surveillance after large scale disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs and to guide us in our knowledge where we may most effectively intervene to reduce the mental health consequences of disasters. PMID:28723959

A novel surveillance approach for disaster mental health.

PubMed

Gruebner, Oliver; Lowe, Sarah R; Sykora, Martin; Shankardass, Ketan; Subramanian, S V; Galea, Sandro

2017-01-01

Disasters have substantial consequences for population mental health. Social media data present an opportunity for mental health surveillance after disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs. We aimed to 1) identify specific basic emotions from Twitter for the greater New York City area during Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, and to 2) detect and map spatial temporal clusters representing excess risk of these emotions. We applied an advanced sentiment analysis on 344,957 Twitter tweets in the study area over eleven days, from October 22 to November 1, 2012, to extract basic emotions, a space-time scan statistic (SaTScan) and a geographic information system (QGIS) to detect and map excess risk of these emotions. Sadness and disgust were among the most prominent emotions identified. Furthermore, we noted 24 spatial clusters of excess risk of basic emotions over time: Four for anger, one for confusion, three for disgust, five for fear, five for sadness, and six for surprise. Of these, anger, confusion, disgust and fear clusters appeared pre disaster, a cluster of surprise was found peri disaster, and a cluster of sadness emerged post disaster. We proposed a novel syndromic surveillance approach for mental health based on social media data that may support conventional approaches by providing useful additional information in the context of disaster. We showed that excess risk of multiple basic emotions could be mapped in space and time as a step towards anticipating acute stress in the population and identifying community mental health need rapidly and efficiently in the aftermath of disaster. More studies are needed to better control for bias, identify associations with reliable and valid instruments measuring mental health, and to explore computational methods for continued model-fitting, causal relationships, and ongoing evaluation. Our study may be a starting point also for more fully elaborated models that can either prospectively detect mental health risk using real-time social media data or detect excess risk of emotional reactions in areas that lack efficient infrastructure during and after disasters. As such, social media data may be used for mental health surveillance after large scale disasters to help identify areas of mental health needs and to guide us in our knowledge where we may most effectively intervene to reduce the mental health consequences of disasters.

Emotion perception after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury: The valence effect and the role of working memory, processing speed, and nonverbal reasoning.

PubMed

Rosenberg, Hannah; Dethier, Marie; Kessels, Roy P C; Westbrook, R Frederick; McDonald, Skye

2015-07-01

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impairs emotion perception. Perception of negative emotions (sadness, disgust, fear, and anger) is reportedly affected more than positive (happiness and surprise) ones. It has been argued that this reflects a specialized neural network underpinning negative emotions that is vulnerable to brain injury. However, studies typically do not equate for differential difficulty between emotions. We aimed to examine whether emotion recognition deficits in people with TBI were specific to negative emotions, while equating task difficulty, and to determine whether perception deficits might be accounted for by other cognitive processes. Twenty-seven people with TBI and 28 matched control participants identified 6 basic emotions at 2 levels of intensity (a) the conventional 100% intensity and (b) "equated intensity"-that is, an intensity that yielded comparable accuracy rates across emotions in controls. (a) At 100% intensity, the TBI group was impaired in recognizing anger, fear, and disgust but not happiness, surprise, or sadness and performed worse on negative than positive emotions. (b) At equated intensity, the TBI group was poorer than controls overall but not differentially poorer in recognizing negative emotions. Although processing speed and nonverbal reasoning were associated with emotion accuracy, injury severity by itself was a unique predictor. When task difficulty is taken into account, individuals with TBI show impairment in recognizing all facial emotions. There was no evidence for a specific impairment for negative emotions or any particular emotion. Impairment was accounted for by injury severity rather than being a secondary effect of reduced neuropsychological functioning. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Systematic review of studies of mental health nurses' experience of anger and of its relationships with their attitudes and practice.

PubMed

Jalil, R; Dickens, G L

2018-04-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: It is generally felt that it is helpful for mental health nurses to control their emotions during their work. There are different approaches, but there is growing acceptance that different emotions may need different coping strategies. There is lots of evidence that nurses sometimes feel anger in a number of situations, but the research about anger in mental health nurses has never been examined as a whole. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: We have systematically identified all previous research where nurses completed measures that tried to measure their anger in certain situations, compared it to other people or investigated how it affected them or what its relationship was with their practice. Only a few studies have measured nurses' anger. However, it seems that while nurses are not generally angrier than any other group, they do often feel anger in relation to management of patient aggression and their job situation more generally. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Anger is the most commonly reported problematic emotion for mental health nurses. It may influence their practice and affect their well-being. This has implications for staff support and training. Introduction Emotional regulation is important in mental health nursing practice, but individual emotions may require different regulation strategies. There is ample evidence that nurses experience anger specifically during their work, for example when experiencing patient aggression. It is, therefore, important to consolidate what is known about how anger manifests in mental health nursing practice. We aimed to systematically identify, evaluate and synthesize results from studies about mental health nurses and anger, where anger was measured objectively. Systematic literature review based on PRISMA guidelines. We identified 12 studies. A range of validated and nonvalidated instruments was used. Mental health nurses may have lower levels of anger than normative samples, but anger is commonly reported as an issue for them. Anger was studied in relation to its links with (1) clinical management of patients, notably violence containment; and (2) employment issues more generally, notably job motivation. Anger is related to nurses' attitudes about the acceptability of coercion, but there is no evidence that it results in more coercion. Nurses should be aware of the potential influence of anger on their practice. Anger, specifically, should be considered when supporting mental health nurses, for example in clinical supervision. Emotional regulation training should target anger. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Individual Differences in Automatic Emotion Regulation Interact with Primed Emotion Regulation during an Anger Provocation.

PubMed

Zhang, Jing; Lipp, Ottmar V; Hu, Ping

2017-01-01

The current study investigated the interactive effects of individual differences in automatic emotion regulation (AER) and primed emotion regulation strategy on skin conductance level (SCL) and heart rate during provoked anger. The study was a 2 × 2 [AER tendency (expression vs. control) × priming (expression vs. control)] between subject design. Participants were assigned to two groups according to their performance on an emotion regulation-IAT (differentiating automatic emotion control tendency and automatic emotion expression tendency). Then participants of the two groups were randomly assigned to two emotion regulation priming conditions (emotion control priming or emotion expression priming). Anger was provoked by blaming participants for slow performance during a subsequent backward subtraction task. In anger provocation, SCL of individuals with automatic emotion control tendencies in the control priming condition was lower than of those with automatic emotion control tendencies in the expression priming condition. However, SCL of individuals with automatic emotion expression tendencies did no differ in the automatic emotion control priming or the automatic emotion expression priming condition. Heart rate during anger provocation was higher in individuals with automatic emotion expression tendencies than in individuals with automatic emotion control tendencies regardless of priming condition. This pattern indicates an interactive effect of individual differences in AER and emotion regulation priming on SCL, which is an index of emotional arousal. Heart rate was only sensitive to the individual differences in AER, and did not reflect this interaction. This finding has implications for clinical studies of the use of emotion regulation strategy training suggesting that different practices are optimal for individuals who differ in AER tendencies.

Anger Management Effects on Middle School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: Anger Log Use, Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kellner, Millicent H.; Bry, Brenna H.; Salvador, Diana S.

2008-01-01

This study examined the impact of a classroom-based, 10-week, cognitive-behavioral, anger management program plus booster sessions on middle school students with emotional disorders attending a therapeutic day school. Forty-five students were in the study; 20 received the program. The program group completed significantly more anger logs compared…

Manipulation of heart rate variability can modify response to anger-inducing stimuli.

PubMed

Francis, Heather M; Penglis, Kathryn M; McDonald, Skye

2016-10-01

Research suggests that heart rate variability (HRV) is a physiological indicator of the flexibility of the autonomic nervous system and can provide an objective measure of an individual's ability to appropriately match emotional responses to environmental demands. The present study investigated whether angry response to emotional stimuli was related to HRV, and whether manipulation of HRV using biofeedback could change the anger response in a healthy adult population. Fifty-eight participants received HRV biofeedback (n = 29) or an active control condition (n = 29). HRV measures included standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN), low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) power, and was recorded across three sessions: baseline, training, and anger induction. The anger induction procedure resulted in increased subjective experience of anger, as well as physiological changes. The biofeedback group had higher HRV than active controls both during the training session (SDNN and LF HRV) and during anger induction (LF HRV). HRV during anger induction was significantly associated with self-reported emotional response for participants receiving biofeedback but not for active controls. Results provide support for HRV as an index of emotion regulation, specifically anger. Further research is needed to determine whether long-term HRV biofeedback can have a lasting effect on managing anger.

Disorders of emotional processing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Sedda, Anna

2014-12-01

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a degenerative brain disease characterized by motor, behavioural and cognitive deficits. Only recently, emotional processing disorders have been shown in this disease. The interest in affective processing in ALS is growing given that basic emotion impairments could impact copying strategies and mood. Studies explore both basic emotion recognition and social cognition. Results are congruent on arousal and valence detection impairments, independently from the stimulus modality (verbal or visual). Further, recognition of facial expressions of anger, sadness and disgust is impaired in ALS, even when cognition is preserved. Clinical features such as type of onset and severity of the disease could be the cause of the heterogeneity in emotional deficits profiles between patients. Finally, a study employing diffusion tensor imaging showed that emotional dysfunctions in ALS are related to right hemispheric connective bundles impairments, involving the inferior longitudinal fasciculus and the inferior frontal occipital fasciculus. Research on emotional processing in ALS is still in its infancy and results are mixed. Future research including more detailed clinical profiles of patients and measures of brain connectivity will provide useful information to understand heterogeneity of results in ALS.

The influence of self-generated emotions on physical performance: an investigation of happiness, anger, anxiety, and sadness.

PubMed

Rathschlag, Marco; Memmert, Daniel

2013-04-01

The present study examined the relationship between self-generated emotions and physical performance. All participants took part in five emotion induction conditions (happiness, anger, anxiety, sadness, and an emotion-neutral state) and we investigated their influence on the force of the finger musculature (Experiment 1), the jump height of a counter-movement jump (Experiment 2), and the velocity of a thrown ball (Experiment 3). All experiments showed that participants could produce significantly better physical performances when recalling anger or happiness emotions in contrast to the emotion-neutral state. Experiments 1 and 2 also revealed that physical performance in the anger and the happiness conditions was significantly enhanced compared with the anxiety and the sadness conditions. Results are discussed in relation to the Lazarus (1991, 2000a) cognitive-motivational-relational (CMR) theory framework.

Compensating for age limits through emotional crossmodal integration

PubMed Central

Chaby, Laurence; Boullay, Viviane Luherne-du; Chetouani, Mohamed; Plaza, Monique

2015-01-01

Social interactions in daily life necessitate the integration of social signals from different sensory modalities. In the aging literature, it is well established that the recognition of emotion in facial expressions declines with advancing age, and this also occurs with vocal expressions. By contrast, crossmodal integration processing in healthy aging individuals is less documented. Here, we investigated the age-related effects on emotion recognition when faces and voices were presented alone or simultaneously, allowing for crossmodal integration. In this study, 31 young adults (M = 25.8 years) and 31 older adults (M = 67.2 years) were instructed to identify several basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust) and a neutral expression, which were displayed as visual (facial expressions), auditory (non-verbal affective vocalizations) or crossmodal (simultaneous, congruent facial and vocal affective expressions) stimuli. The results showed that older adults performed slower and worse than younger adults at recognizing negative emotions from isolated faces and voices. In the crossmodal condition, although slower, older adults were as accurate as younger except for anger. Importantly, additional analyses using the “race model” demonstrate that older adults benefited to the same extent as younger adults from the combination of facial and vocal emotional stimuli. These results help explain some conflicting results in the literature and may clarify emotional abilities related to daily life that are partially spared among older adults. PMID:26074845

Anger Promotes Economic Conservatism.

PubMed

Kettle, Keri L; Salerno, Anthony

2017-10-01

Research suggests that certain facets of people's political ideals can be motivated by different goals. Although it is widely accepted that emotions motivate goal-directed behavior, less is known about how emotion-specific goals may influence different facets of ideology. In this research, we examine how anger affects political ideology and through what mechanisms such effects occur. Drawing on the dual-process motivational model of ideology and the functionalist perspective of emotion, we propose that anger leads people to support conservative economic ideals, which promote economic independence and discourage societal resource sharing. Four studies support our hypothesis that anger can enhance support for an election candidate espousing conservative economic ideals. We find that anger shifts people toward economic conservatism by orienting them toward competition for resources. Implications and future research on the relationship between emotions and political ideology are discussed.

Inside-out: comparing internally generated and externally generated basic emotions.

PubMed

Salas, Christian E; Radovic, Darinka; Turnbull, Oliver H

2012-06-01

A considerable number of mood induction (MI) procedures have been developed to elicit emotion in normal and clinical populations. Although external procedures (e.g., film clips, pictures) are widely used, a number of experiments elicit emotion by using self-generated procedures (e.g., recalling an emotional personal episode). However, no study has directly compared the effectiveness of two types of internal versus external MI across multiple discrete emotions. In the present experiment, 40 undergraduate students watched film clips (external procedure) and recalled personal events (internal procedure) inducing 4 basic emotions (fear, anger, joy, sadness) and later completed a self-report questionnaire. Remarkably, both internal and external procedures elicited target emotions selectively, compared with nontarget emotions. When contrasting the intensity of target emotions, both techniques showed no significant differences, with the exception of Joy, which was more intensely elicited by the internal procedure. Importantly, when considering the overall level of intensity, it was always greater in the internal procedure, for each stimulus. A more detailed investigation of the data suggest that recalling personal events (a type of internal procedure) generates more negative and mixed blends of emotions, which might account for the overall higher intensity of the internal mood induction.

The Perception of Four Basic Emotions in Human and Nonhuman Faces by Children with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Thomas F.

2004-01-01

Children who experienced autism, mental retardation, and language disorders; and, children in a clinical control group were shown photographs of human female, orangutan, and canine (boxer) faces expressing happiness, sadness, anger, surprise and a neutral expression. For each species of faces, children were asked to identify the happy, sad, angry,…

'I was like a wild wild person': understanding feelings of anger using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

PubMed

Eatough, Virginia; Smith, Jonathan

2006-11-01

This paper is concerned with illuminating how emotion (anger) and emotion-related phenomena such as feelings, thoughts and expressions appear to the individual person. In particular, it focuses on the role of feelings in emotion experience. It does this through the qualitative analysis of interview material from a single person case study using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The paper examines how the participant feels and experiences anger, the defining characteristics of anger episodes, and how the typical pattern of these episodes is disrupted by life-changes. The findings are examined in light of phenomenological ideas and the utility of these ideas for psychology's understanding of emotion argued for.

Retrospective Ratings of Emotions: the Effects of Age, Daily Tiredness, and Personality

PubMed Central

Mill, Aire; Realo, Anu; Allik, Jüri

2016-01-01

Remembering the emotions we have experienced in the past is the core of one's unique life-experience. However, there are many factors, both at the state and trait level that can affect the way past feelings are seen. The main aim of the current study was to examine the impact of individual differences on systematic biases in retrospective ratings compared to the momentary experience of basic emotions such as sadness, fear, happiness, and anger. To this end, an experience sampling study across 2 weeks was conducted using a younger and an older age-group; the experience of momentary emotions was assessed on 7 randomly determined occasions per day, the retrospective ratings being collected at the end of each day about that day, as well as at the end of the study about the previous 2 weeks. The results indicated that age and daily tiredness have significant effects on retrospective emotion ratings over a 1-day period (state level), enhancing the retrospective ratings of negative emotions and decreasing the ratings of felt happiness. Whereas personality traits influence the more long-term emotion experience (trait level), with all Big Five personality traits having selective impact on retrospective emotion ratings of fear, sadness, happiness, and anger. Findings provide further evidence about the systematic biases in retrospective emotion ratings, suggesting that, although retrospective ratings are based on momentary experience, daily tiredness and personality traits systematically influence the way in which past feelings are seen. PMID:26793142

Emotional expressivity and emotion regulation: Relation to academic functioning among elementary school children.

PubMed

Kwon, Kyongboon; Hanrahan, Amanda R; Kupzyk, Kevin A

2017-03-01

We examined emotional expressivity (i.e., happiness, sadness, and anger) and emotion regulation (regulation of exuberance, sadness, and anger) as they relate to academic functioning (motivation, engagement, and achievement). Also, we tested the premise that emotional expressivity and emotion regulation are indirectly associated with achievement through academic motivation and engagement. Participants included 417 elementary school students (Mage = 10 years; 52% female; 60% Black) and their teachers from a Midwestern metropolitan area. We used child and teacher questionnaires, and data were analyzed with structural equation modeling. Regarding emotionality, happiness was positively associated with multiple aspects of academic functioning whereas an inverse association was found for anger; sadness was not associated with academic functioning. Also, happiness and anger were indirectly related to achievement through academic engagement. Emotion regulation was positively associated with multiple aspects of academic functioning; it was also indirectly associated with achievement through engagement. Implications are discussed regarding how social and emotional learning programs in schools can further benefit from research on children's emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of Anger Awareness and Expression Training versus Relaxation Training on Headaches: A Randomized Trial

PubMed Central

Slavin-Spenny, Olga; Lumley, Mark A.; Thakur, Elyse R.; Nevedal, Dana C.; Hijazi, Alaa M.

2013-01-01

Background and purpose Stress contributes to headaches, and effective interventions for headaches routinely include relaxation training (RT) to directly reduce negative emotions and arousal. Yet, suppressing negative emotions, particularly anger, appears to augment pain, and experimental studies suggest that expressing anger may reduce pain. Therefore, we developed and tested anger awareness and expression training (AAET) on people with headaches. Methods Young adults with headaches (N = 147) were randomized to AAET, RT, or a wait-list control. We assessed affect during sessions, and process and outcome variables at baseline and 4 weeks after treatment. Results On process measures, both interventions increased self-efficacy to manage headaches, but only AAET reduced alexithymia and increased emotional processing and assertiveness. Yet, both interventions were equally effective at improving headache outcomes relative to controls. Conclusions Enhancing anger awareness and expression may improve chronic headaches, although not more than RT. Researchers should study which patients are most likely to benefit from emotional expression versus emotional reduction approaches to chronic pain. PMID:23620190

Predicting athletes' functional and dysfunctional emotions: The role of the motivational climate and motivation regulations.

PubMed

Ruiz, Montse C; Haapanen, Saara; Tolvanen, Asko; Robazza, Claudio; Duda, Joan L

2017-08-01

This study examined the relationships between perceptions of the motivational climate, motivation regulations, and the intensity and functionality levels of athletes' pleasant and unpleasant emotional states. Specifically, we examined the hypothesised mediational role of motivation regulations in the climate-emotion relationship. We also tested a sequence in which emotions were assumed to be predicted by the motivational climate dimensions and then served as antecedents to variability in motivation regulations. Participants (N = 494) completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing targeted variables. Structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that a perceived task-involving climate was a positive predictor of autonomous motivation and of the impact of functional anger, and a negative predictor of the intensity of anxiety and dysfunctional anger. Autonomous motivation was a partial mediator of perceptions of a task-involving climate and the impact of functional anger. An ego-involving climate was a positive predictor of controlled motivation, and of the intensity and impact of functional anger and the intensity of dysfunctional anger. Controlled motivation partially mediated the relationship between an ego-involving climate and the intensity of dysfunctional anger. Good fit to the data also emerged for the motivational climate, emotional states, and motivation regulations sequence. Findings provide support for the consideration of hedonic tone and functionality distinctions in the assessment of athletes' emotional states.

Development of emotional facial recognition in late childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Thomas, Laura A; De Bellis, Michael D; Graham, Reiko; LaBar, Kevin S

2007-09-01

The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents and adults on a two-alternative forced-choice discrimination task using morphed faces that varied in emotional content. Actors appeared to pose expressions that changed incrementally along three progressions: neutral-to-fear, neutral-to-anger, and fear-to-anger. Across all three morph types, adults displayed more sensitivity to subtle changes in emotional expression than children and adolescents. Fear morphs and fear-to-anger blends showed a linear developmental trajectory, whereas anger morphs showed a quadratic trend, increasing sharply from adolescents to adults. The results provide evidence for late developmental changes in emotional expression recognition with some specificity in the time course for distinct emotions.

The role of emotions in depression and aggression.

PubMed

Llorca, A; Malonda, E; Samper, P

2016-09-01

Depression is a broad and heterogeneous diagnostic grouping, central to which is depressed mood or inability to enjoy most activities. Depressive symptoms are frequently accompanied by conduct problems stemming from anger. It is very important to know the interrelation of these emotions very well to be able to help adolescents to manage them more easily. The main aim of this article is to present the problem of interaction between negative affects (emotional instability, anger state and trait, physical and verbal aggression and depression) analyzing the different relationship through the time in spanish sample. The sample included 470 adolescents (192 boys and 225 girls) in a three-wave longitudinal study in Valencia (Spain). The mean age was 14.70 in the first wave. Structural equations modelling was employed to explore two longitudinal models. The results show differences based on sex, and that an internalised variable, like emotional instability, is relevant to prevent the appearance of depression directly in girls and also the later appearance of aggression as long as anger mediates, in both boys and girls, so the control of anger becomes an important goal to control the rest of the negative affects. This results has consequences in the preparation of all programmes that try to establish an emotional control on adolescents, as not only has to be taken into account as a direct goal the control of externalised emotions like anger, but internalised emotions like emotional instability have to be taken into account also. Furthermore, it is also made apparent that not only the punctual explosions and externalisation of anger have to be worked on, but the temperamental aspects which are the base of anger trait have to be worked on too.

Psychological Predictors of Aggressive Behavior Among Men and Women.

PubMed

Stefanile, Cristina; Matera, Camilla; Nerini, Amanda; Puddu, Luisa; Raffagnino, Rosalba

2017-10-01

This study examined the relationships among attitude toward violence, self-esteem, emotion dysregulation, anger, and aggression in community men and women and male inmates. Overall, 166 community men, 197 community women, and 100 male inmates completed a battery of questionnaires containing self-reported measures. Self-esteem and attitude toward violence were significant predictors of aggressive behavior, with emotion dysregulation mediating the relationship between self-esteem and the criterion variable. Anger mediated the relationship between emotion dysregulation and aggressive behavior only among community people. Among men, inmates reported a more favorable attitude toward violence, lower self-esteem, higher emotion dysregulation, more aggressive behaviors, and a lower tendency to get angry. Women showed a less favorable attitude toward violence, lower self-esteem, higher emotion dysregulation, and a higher tendency for anger than men, while no differences emerged for aggressive behavior. These findings suggest that self-related constructs and emotion regulation strategies represent key processes associated with aggressive behavior among all participants, while the role of anger is more prominent in community people. To reduce aggressive tendencies, treatment and prevention interventions might increase self-esteem, emotion regulation skills, and one's ability to direct anger toward other goals. Moreover, programs aimed at changing attitudes toward violence could be useful.

Distributed affective space represents multiple emotion categories across the human brain

PubMed Central

Saarimäki, Heini; Ejtehadian, Lara Farzaneh; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Vuilleumier, Patrik; Sams, Mikko; Nummenmaa, Lauri

2018-01-01

Abstract The functional organization of human emotion systems as well as their neuroanatomical basis and segregation in the brain remains unresolved. Here, we used pattern classification and hierarchical clustering to characterize the organization of a wide array of emotion categories in the human brain. We induced 14 emotions (6 ‘basic’, e.g. fear and anger; and 8 ‘non-basic’, e.g. shame and gratitude) and a neutral state using guided mental imagery while participants' brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Twelve out of 14 emotions could be reliably classified from the haemodynamic signals. All emotions engaged a multitude of brain areas, primarily in midline cortices including anterior and posterior cingulate gyri and precuneus, in subcortical regions, and in motor regions including cerebellum and premotor cortex. Similarity of subjective emotional experiences was associated with similarity of the corresponding neural activation patterns. We conclude that different basic and non-basic emotions have distinguishable neural bases characterized by specific, distributed activation patterns in widespread cortical and subcortical circuits. Regionally differentiated engagement of these circuits defines the unique neural activity pattern and the corresponding subjective feeling associated with each emotion. PMID:29618125

The effect of reactive emotions expressed in response to another's anger on inferences of social power.

PubMed

Hareli, Shlomo; David, Shlomo

2017-06-01

Social perception of emotions is influenced by the context in which it occurs. One such context is a social interaction involving an exchange of emotions. The way parties to the interaction are perceived is shaped by the combination of emotions exchanged. This idea was examined by assessing the extent to which expressions of anger toward a target-which, in isolation, are perceived as signals of high social power-are influenced by the target's emotional reaction to it (i.e., reactive emotions). Three studies show that the angry person was perceived as having a higher level of social power when this anger was responded by fear or sadness than when it was responded by neutrality or anger. Study 1 indicated that reactive emotions have a stronger effect on perceived social power when emotions were incongruent with gender stereotypes. Study 2 indicated that these effects are a result of these emotions serving as reactive emotions rather than a benchmark against which the angry person's power is assessed. Study 3 showed that reactive emotions affect perceived social power by serving as signals of the level to which the high social power suggested by the first person's expression is confirmed by its target. Comparing effects of reactive emotions to anger with reactive emotions to sadness, showed that perceived social power of the expresser is determined by the nature of the expression, with some adjustment caused by the reactive emotions. This underscores the importance of social interaction as a context for the social perception of emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Teaching emotion recognition skills to young children with autism: a randomised controlled trial of an emotion training programme.

PubMed

Williams, Beth T; Gray, Kylie M; Tonge, Bruce J

2012-12-01

Children with autism have difficulties in emotion recognition and a number of interventions have been designed to target these problems. However, few emotion training interventions have been trialled with young children with autism and co-morbid ID. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an emotion training programme for a group of young children with autism with a range of intellectual ability. Participants were 55 children with autistic disorder, aged 4-7 years (FSIQ 42-107). Children were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 28) or control group (n = 27). Participants in the intervention group watched a DVD designed to teach emotion recognition skills to children with autism (the Transporters), whereas the control group watched a DVD of Thomas the Tank Engine. Participants were assessed on their ability to complete basic emotion recognition tasks, mindreading and theory of mind (TOM) tasks before and after the 4-week intervention period, and at 3-month follow-up. Analyses controlled for the effect of chronological age, verbal intelligence, gender and DVD viewing time on outcomes. Children in the intervention group showed improved performance in the recognition of anger compared with the control group, with few improvements maintained at 3-month follow-up. There was no generalisation of skills to TOM or social skills. The Transporters programme showed limited efficacy in teaching basic emotion recognition skills to young children with autism with a lower range of cognitive ability. Improvements were limited to the recognition of expressions of anger, with poor maintenance of these skills at follow-up. These findings provide limited support for the efficacy of the Transporters programme for young children with autism of a lower cognitive range. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2012 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Emotions in sexual morality: testing the separate elicitors of anger and disgust.

PubMed

Giner-Sorolla, Roger; Bosson, Jennifer K; Caswell, T Andrew; Hettinger, Vanessa E

2012-01-01

Recent work suggests that negative moral judgements of sexual activities are informed by disgust and anger. A correlational study (N=62) and an experiment (N=176) examined the specific antecedents that elicit these distinct, though correlated, moral emotions. Participants in Study 1 rated their emotional reactions to, and judgements of, 10 sexual scenarios. Across scenarios, judgements of abnormality predicted disgust independent of anger, and judgements of harm/rights violation predicted anger independent of disgust. Study 2 replicated these results in an experimental design. Participants rated their emotions and judgements in response to behaviours that varied in degree of potential sexual morality violation (non-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual) and rights violation (no harm, indirect harm, direct harm). Judgement of rights violation mediated the effects of harm on anger. Judgements of abnormality, but not other antecedents proposed to elicit moral disgust, mediated the effects of sexual immorality on disgust.

From Unresolved Anger to Sadness: Identifying Physiological Correlates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rochman, Daniel; Diamond, Gary M.

2008-01-01

This study was designed to identify physiological correlates of unresolved anger and sadness, and the shift between these emotions, in a context similar to that of emotion-focused, experiential psychotherapy. Twenty-seven university students reporting unresolved anger toward an attachment figure were induced to experience and express unresolved…

Context-Inappropriate Anger, Emotion Knowledge Deficits, and Negative Social Experiences in Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Locke, Robin L.; Miller, Alison L.; Seifer, Ronald; Heinze, Justin E.

2015-01-01

This study examined contextually inappropriate (CI) anger in relation to emotion recognition and situation knowledge, negative social experiences, and externalizing behavior among low-income 4-year-olds attending Head Start (n = 134). Approximately 23% showed anger when presented with positive/neutral slides and videos (valence-incongruent CI…

Intrinsic connectivity in the human brain does not reveal networks for ‘basic’ emotions

PubMed Central

Lindquist, Kristen A.; Dickerson, Bradford C.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2015-01-01

We tested two competing models for the brain basis of emotion, the basic emotion theory and the conceptual act theory of emotion, using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fcMRI). The basic emotion view hypothesizes that anger, sadness, fear, disgust and happiness each arise from a brain network that is innate, anatomically constrained and homologous in other animals. The conceptual act theory of emotion hypothesizes that an instance of emotion is a brain state constructed from the interaction of domain-general, core systems within the brain such as the salience, default mode and frontoparietal control networks. Using peak coordinates derived from a meta-analysis of task-evoked emotion fMRI studies, we generated a set of whole-brain rs-fcMRI ‘discovery’ maps for each emotion category and examined the spatial overlap in their conjunctions. Instead of discovering a specific network for each emotion category, variance in the discovery maps was accounted for by the known domain-general network. Furthermore, the salience network is observed as part of every emotion category. These results indicate that specific networks for each emotion do not exist within the intrinsic architecture of the human brain and instead support the conceptual act theory of emotion. PMID:25680990

Brain Response to a Humanoid Robot in Areas Implicated in the Perception of Human Emotional Gestures

PubMed Central

Chaminade, Thierry; Zecca, Massimiliano; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne; Takanishi, Atsuo; Frith, Chris D.; Micera, Silvestro; Dario, Paolo; Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Gallese, Vittorio; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra

2010-01-01

Background The humanoid robot WE4-RII was designed to express human emotions in order to improve human-robot interaction. We can read the emotions depicted in its gestures, yet might utilize different neural processes than those used for reading the emotions in human agents. Methodology Here, fMRI was used to assess how brain areas activated by the perception of human basic emotions (facial expression of Anger, Joy, Disgust) and silent speech respond to a humanoid robot impersonating the same emotions, while participants were instructed to attend either to the emotion or to the motion depicted. Principal Findings Increased responses to robot compared to human stimuli in the occipital and posterior temporal cortices suggest additional visual processing when perceiving a mechanical anthropomorphic agent. In contrast, activity in cortical areas endowed with mirror properties, like left Broca's area for the perception of speech, and in the processing of emotions like the left anterior insula for the perception of disgust and the orbitofrontal cortex for the perception of anger, is reduced for robot stimuli, suggesting lesser resonance with the mechanical agent. Finally, instructions to explicitly attend to the emotion significantly increased response to robot, but not human facial expressions in the anterior part of the left inferior frontal gyrus, a neural marker of motor resonance. Conclusions Motor resonance towards a humanoid robot, but not a human, display of facial emotion is increased when attention is directed towards judging emotions. Significance Artificial agents can be used to assess how factors like anthropomorphism affect neural response to the perception of human actions. PMID:20657777

Anger Modulates Influence Hierarchies Within and Between Emotional Reactivity and Regulation Networks

PubMed Central

Jacob, Yael; Gilam, Gadi; Lin, Tamar; Raz, Gal; Hendler, Talma

2018-01-01

Emotion regulation is hypothesized to be mediated by the interactions between emotional reactivity and regulation networks during the dynamic unfolding of the emotional episode. Yet, it remains unclear how to delineate the effective relationships between these networks. In this study, we examined the aforementioned networks’ information flow hierarchy during viewing of an anger provoking movie excerpt. Anger regulation is particularly essential for averting individuals from aggression and violence, thus improving prosocial behavior. Using subjective ratings of anger intensity we differentiated between low and high anger periods of the film. We then applied the Dependency Network Analysis (DEPNA), a newly developed graph theory method to quantify networks’ node importance during the two anger periods. The DEPNA analysis revealed that the impact of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) was higher in the high anger condition, particularly within the regulation network and on the connections between the reactivity and regulation networks. We further showed that higher levels of vmPFC impact on the regulation network were associated with lower subjective anger intensity during the high-anger cinematic period, and lower trait anger levels. Supporting and replicating previous findings, these results emphasize the previously acknowledged central role of vmPFC in modulating negative affect. We further show that the impact of the vmPFC relies on its correlational influence on the connectivity between reactivity and regulation networks. More importantly, the hierarchy network analysis revealed a link between connectivity patterns of the vmPFC and individual differences in anger reactivity and trait, suggesting its potential therapeutic role. PMID:29681803

Psychophysiological effects of emotional display rules and the moderating role of trait anger in a simulated call center.

PubMed

Rohrmann, Sonja; Bechtoldt, Myriam N; Hopp, Henrik; Hodapp, Volker; Zapf, Dieter

2011-07-01

In customer interactions, emotional display rules typically prescribe service providers to suppress negative emotions and display positive ones. This study investigated the causal impact of these emotional display rules on physiological indicators of workers' stress and performance. Additionally, the moderating influence of personality was examined by analyzing the impact of trait anger. In a simulated call center, 82 females were confronted with a complaining customer and instructed to react either authentically and show their true emotions or to "serve with a smile" and hide negative emotions. Increases in diastolic blood pressure and heart rates were higher in the smile condition, while verbal fluency was lower. Trait anger moderated the effects on diastolic blood pressure and observer ratings' of participants' professional competence, suggesting more negative effects for high trait anger individuals. Findings imply that emotional display rules may increase call center employees' strain and that considering employees' personality may be crucial for precluding health and performance impairments among call center workers.

[Is kinesiophobia associated with changes in left/right judgment and emotion recognition during a persisting pain condition? : A cross-sectional study].

PubMed

von Piekartz, H; Lüers, J; Daumeyer, H; Mohr, G

2017-10-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of kinesiophobia on emotion recognition and left/right judgement. A total of 67 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain were tested. In all, 24 patients achieved a score >37 on the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia and were included in the study. The ability to recognize basic emotions coded through facial expression was assessed using the Facially Expressed Emotion Labeling (FEEL) test. Left/right judgement was evaluated using a special Face-mirroring Assessment and Treatment program. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-26 (TAS-26) was used to assess if the patients showed signs of alexithymia. The FEEL score of patients with kinesiophobia was significantly lower (p = 0.019). The recognition of the basic emotions fear (p = 0.026), anger (p = 0.027), and surprise (p = 0.014) showed significant differences in comparison to unaffected subjects. The basic emotion surprise was recognized more often by patients with kinesiophobia (p = 0.014). Only Scale 1 of the TAS-26 (identification problems of emotions) showed a significant difference between patients with kinesiophobia (p = 0.008) and healthy subjects. The results show that kinesiophobic patients have altered recognition of emotions, problems in left/right judgement, and show signs of alexithymia.

The Chinese Facial Emotion Recognition Database (CFERD): a computer-generated 3-D paradigm to measure the recognition of facial emotional expressions at different intensities.

PubMed

Huang, Charles Lung-Cheng; Hsiao, Sigmund; Hwu, Hai-Gwo; Howng, Shen-Long

2012-12-30

The Chinese Facial Emotion Recognition Database (CFERD), a computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) paradigm, was developed to measure the recognition of facial emotional expressions at different intensities. The stimuli consisted of 3D colour photographic images of six basic facial emotional expressions (happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger and surprise) and neutral faces of the Chinese. The purpose of the present study is to describe the development and validation of CFERD with nonclinical healthy participants (N=100; 50 men; age ranging between 18 and 50 years), and to generate normative data set. The results showed that the sensitivity index d' [d'=Z(hit rate)-Z(false alarm rate), where function Z(p), p∈[0,1

Dynamic Changes in Anger, Externalizing and Internalizing Problems: Attention and Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jungmeen; Deater-Deckard, Kirby

2011-01-01

Background: Low levels of dispositional anger and a good attention span are critical to healthy social emotional development, with attention control reflecting effective cognitive self-regulation of negative emotions such as anger. Using a longitudinal design, we examined attention span as a moderator of reciprocal links between changes in anger…

Learning To Manage Anger: Discussion Leader's Manual for the RETHINK Workout for Teens.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institute for Mental Health Initiatives, Washington, DC.

Although anger is a universal emotion, many normal people have great difficulty expressing this feeling. It is associated with physical as well as emotional manifestations, and has serious, destructive social ramifications. Several cognitive skills have been identified in the constructive use of anger: focus strategies, cognitive restructuring,…

Traits of empathy and anger: implications for psychopathy and other disorders associated with aggression.

PubMed

Blair, R J R

2018-04-19

Empathy and anger are two social emotions that modulate an individual's risk for aggression. Empathy is an emotional reaction to another individual's emotional state. Anger is an emotional reaction to threat, frustration or social provocation. Reduced empathy, seen in psychopathy, increases the risk for goal-directed aggression. Atypically increased anger (i.e. irritability), seen in conditions like disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and borderline personality disorder, increases the risk for reactive aggression. In this paper, I will outline core neurocognitive functions that correspond to empathy and which are compromised in individuals with psychopathic traits. In addition, I will outline neurocognitive functions involved in either the generation or regulation of anger and which are compromised in psychiatric conditions at increased risk for irritability/reactive aggression. It can be hoped that improved understanding of empathy and anger will lead to better assessment tools and improved interventions to reduce aggression risk.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Assessment of perception of morphed facial expressions using the Emotion Recognition Task: normative data from healthy participants aged 8-75.

PubMed

Kessels, Roy P C; Montagne, Barbara; Hendriks, Angelique W; Perrett, David I; de Haan, Edward H F

2014-03-01

The ability to recognize and label emotional facial expressions is an important aspect of social cognition. However, existing paradigms to examine this ability present only static facial expressions, suffer from ceiling effects or have limited or no norms. A computerized test, the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT), was developed to overcome these difficulties. In this study, we examined the effects of age, sex, and intellectual ability on emotion perception using the ERT. In this test, emotional facial expressions are presented as morphs gradually expressing one of the six basic emotions from neutral to four levels of intensity (40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%). The task was administered in 373 healthy participants aged 8-75. In children aged 8-17, only small developmental effects were found for the emotions anger and happiness, in contrast to adults who showed age-related decline on anger, fear, happiness, and sadness. Sex differences were present predominantly in the adult participants. IQ only minimally affected the perception of disgust in the children, while years of education were correlated with all emotions but surprise and disgust in the adult participants. A regression-based approach was adopted to present age- and education- or IQ-adjusted normative data for use in clinical practice. Previous studies using the ERT have demonstrated selective impairments on specific emotions in a variety of psychiatric, neurologic, or neurodegenerative patient groups, making the ERT a valuable addition to existing paradigms for the assessment of emotion perception. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Anger, Fear, Uncertainty, and Attitudes: A Test of the Cognitive-Functional Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nabi, Robin L.

2002-01-01

Explains that the cognitive-functional model of discrete negative emotions and attitude change attempts to bridge the theoretical gap between "emotional" and "rational" approaches to persuasion by focusing on how emotions motivate attention to and processing of persuasive messages. Explores the effects two emotions, anger and fear, and two levels…

Social appraisal influences recognition of emotions.

PubMed

Mumenthaler, Christian; Sander, David

2012-06-01

The notion of social appraisal emphasizes the importance of a social dimension in appraisal theories of emotion by proposing that the way an individual appraises an event is influenced by the way other individuals appraise and feel about the same event. This study directly tested this proposal by asking participants to recognize dynamic facial expressions of emotion (fear, happiness, or anger in Experiment 1; fear, happiness, anger, or neutral in Experiment 2) in a target face presented at the center of a screen while a contextual face, which appeared simultaneously in the periphery of the screen, expressed an emotion (fear, happiness, anger) or not (neutral) and either looked at the target face or not. We manipulated gaze direction to be able to distinguish between a mere contextual effect (gaze away from both the target face and the participant) and a specific social appraisal effect (gaze toward the target face). Results of both experiments provided evidence for a social appraisal effect in emotion recognition, which differed from the mere effect of contextual information: Whereas facial expressions were identical in both conditions, the direction of the gaze of the contextual face influenced emotion recognition. Social appraisal facilitated the recognition of anger, happiness, and fear when the contextual face expressed the same emotion. This facilitation was stronger than the mere contextual effect. Social appraisal also allowed better recognition of fear when the contextual face expressed anger and better recognition of anger when the contextual face expressed fear. 2012 APA, all rights reserved

Emotional Skills-Building Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickover, Sheri

2010-01-01

Current anger management programs use a cognitive behavior perspective; however, research also links anger control to developmental deficits such as attachment insecurity and emotional regulation. This article previews the Emotional Skills-Building Curriculum (ESBC), a 13-week treatment program designed to treat individuals who are referred for…

An agent-based model for emotion contagion and competition in online social media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Rui; Xu, Ke; Zhao, Jichang

2018-04-01

Recent studies suggest that human emotions diffuse in not only real-world communities but also online social media. However, a comprehensive model that considers up-to-date findings and multiple online social media mechanisms is still missing. To bridge this vital gap, an agent-based model, which concurrently considers emotion influence and tie strength preferences, is presented to simulate the emotion contagion and competition. Our model well reproduces patterns observed in the empirical data, like anger's preference on weak ties, anger-dominated users' high vitalities and angry tweets' short retweet intervals, and anger's competitiveness in negative events. The comparison with a previously presented baseline model further demonstrates its effectiveness in modeling online emotion contagion. It is also surprisingly revealed by our model that as the ratio of anger approaches joy with a gap less than 12%, anger will eventually dominate the online social media and arrives the collective outrage in the cyber space. The critical gap disclosed here can be indeed warning signals at early stages for outrage control. Our model would shed lights on the study of multiple issues regarding emotion contagion and competition in terms of computer simulations.

Skilful communication: Emotional facial expressions recognition in very old adults.

PubMed

María Sarabia-Cobo, Carmen; Navas, María José; Ellgring, Heiner; García-Rodríguez, Beatriz

2016-02-01

The main objective of this study was to assess the changes associated with ageing in the ability to identify emotional facial expressions and to what extent such age-related changes depend on the intensity with which each basic emotion is manifested. A randomised controlled trial carried out on 107 subjects who performed a six alternative forced-choice emotional expressions identification task. The stimuli consisted of 270 virtual emotional faces expressing the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger and disgust) at three different levels of intensity (low, pronounced and maximum). The virtual faces were generated by facial surface changes, as described in the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). A progressive age-related decline in the ability to identify emotional facial expressions was detected. The ability to recognise the intensity of expressions was one of the most strongly impaired variables associated with age, although the valence of emotion was also poorly identified, particularly in terms of recognising negative emotions. Nurses should be mindful of how ageing affects communication with older patients. In this study, very old adults displayed more difficulties in identifying emotional facial expressions, especially low intensity expressions and those associated with difficult emotions like disgust or fear. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional contagion and burnout among nurses and doctors: Do joy and anger from different sources of stakeholders matter?

PubMed

Petitta, Laura; Jiang, Lixin; Härtel, Charmine E J

2017-10-01

The present study adds novel knowledge to the literature on emotional contagion (EC), discrete emotions, job burnout, and the management of healthcare professionals by simultaneously considering EC as both a job demand and a job resource with multiple social pathways. Integrating EC into the job demands-resource model, we develop and test a conceptual model wherein multiple stakeholder sources of emotional exchanges (i.e., leaders, colleagues, patients) play a differential role in predicting caregivers' absorption of positive (i.e., joy) and negative (i.e., anger) emotions, and in turn, burnout. We tested this nomological network using structural equation modeling and invariance analyses on a sample of 252 nurses and 102 doctors from diverse healthcare wards in three Italian hospitals. Our findings show that not all emotional exchange sources contribute to the EC experience or likelihood of burnout. Specifically, we found that doctors absorbed joy and anger from their colleagues but not from their leaders or patients. In contrast, nurses absorbed joy and anger from leaders, colleagues, and patients. Surprisingly, we found that joy-absorbed and anger-absorbed were related to doctors' exhaustion and cynicism, but only to nurses' cynicism. We conclude with suggestions for advancing research and practice in the management of emotions for preventing burnout. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Can an anger face also be scared? Malleability of facial expressions.

PubMed

Widen, Sherri C; Naab, Pamela

2012-10-01

Do people always interpret a facial expression as communicating a single emotion (e.g., the anger face as only angry) or is that interpretation malleable? The current study investigated preschoolers' (N = 60; 3-4 years) and adults' (N = 20) categorization of facial expressions. On each of five trials, participants selected from an array of 10 facial expressions (an open-mouthed, high arousal expression and a closed-mouthed, low arousal expression each for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) all those that displayed the target emotion. Children's interpretation of facial expressions was malleable: 48% of children who selected the fear, anger, sadness, and disgust faces for the "correct" category also selected these same faces for another emotion category; 47% of adults did so for the sadness and disgust faces. The emotion children and adults attribute to facial expressions is influenced by the emotion category for which they are looking.

Do peritraumatic emotions differentially predict PTSD symptom clusters? Initial evidence for emotion specificity.

PubMed

Dewey, Daniel; Schuldberg, David; Madathil, Renee

2014-08-01

This study investigated whether specific peritraumatic emotions differentially predict PTSD symptom clusters in individuals who have experienced stressful life events. Hypotheses were developed based on the SPAARS model of PTSD. It was predicted that the peritraumatic emotions of anger, disgust, guilt, and fear would significantly predict re-experiencing and avoidance symptoms, while only fear would predict hyperarousal. Undergraduate students (N = 144) participated in this study by completing a packet of self-report questionnaires. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with PCL-S symptom cluster scores as dependent variables and peritraumatic fear, guilt, anger, shame, and disgust as predictor variables. As hypothesized, peritraumatic anger, guilt, and fear all significantly predicted re-experiencing. However, only fear predicted avoidance, and anger significantly predicted hyperarousal. Results are discussed in relation to the theoretical role of emotions in the etiology of PTSD following the experience of a stressful life event.

[Systemic biopsychological perspective of basic emotions].

PubMed

Poisson, Benoît

The systemic biopsychological perspective of basic emotions is a heuristic model that allows a better understanding of how people learn to adapt to their environment through different emotions that developed gradually along neurohormonal circuit myelination from birth until about the age of twenty-one. These same emotions, acting in complementarity, will allow the individual to maintain a balance throughout his life.Five basic emotions were retained in line with the five emotions related to neuronal circuits, which are defined in the literature, and these are the five circuits described by Panksepp as follows: aggressiveness (Rage, angry), stress (Fear- surprise), developed by LeDoux, reward (Seeking-joy), developed by Tassin, empathy (Panic-sadness), developed by Decety, and consciousness (consciousness-happiness), developed by Damasio.Several studies on myelination (Kinney, 1988, Parazzini, 2002, Deoni, 2012), Miller, 2012, and Welker, 2012) provide us with a scientific platform to determine the order of development of the neurohormonal circuits underlying basic emotions.Neurohormonal circuits development begins at conception and will continue up until the age of 20-30 years. This article specifically addresses the first three years of life. It offers a systemic biopsychological perspective of basic emotions developed from the latest data in neuroscience. These informations have been integrated into a coherent whole that allows understanding the origin, the development and the functioning of basic emotions.In addition to the information output from the thalamus to the midbrain that set in motion the somatic nervous system there exist, according to Roberge (1998), two other brain information sources that are managed by the hypothalamus (the limbic system). These two information sources allow the refining of the behavioural responses and they favour the homeostasis of the organism. The first information source goes from the midbrain to the hypothalamus to activate the peripheral nervous system. The latter is divided into two: the sympathetic (norepinephrine) that accelerates the motor response and the parasympathetic (acetylcholine), which slows it down. These two systems work in tandem. As for the second release of information, it is endocrine, thus it will follow the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis to cortisol, the hypothalamus-pituitary axis to endorphin and oxytocin and the hypothalamus-pineal axis to melatonin. The different emotional behaviours result from one of these two sources of information or from a combination of these two and are then managed by the limbic system, which is in continuous connection with the neocortex.In short, no specific centre totally controls human behaviour. Control is achieved through a group of brain structures and relays, permitting adaptive behaviour and maintenance of balance by means of permanent exchanges. Anger, for instance, is a survival emotion, which allows protecting one's physical integrity. It is very useful as an immediate response in an emergency situation, but it can also be harmful if it is used extensively in all situations, giving way to conduct disorders. Thus, the other neurohormonal circuits will regulate anger.Emotions are an integral part of human behaviour. They allow the individual to constantly adapt to the physical and social environment. This approach brings a new perspective to understand how each person maintains balance to avoid the onset of clinical disorders. The understanding of neurochemical mechanisms underlying basic emotions opens up the door to several clinical applications.

Behavioral Assessment of Emotion Discrimination, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Control in Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood

PubMed Central

Tottenham, Nim; Hare, Todd A.; Casey, B. J.

2011-01-01

Emotion discrimination, emotion regulation, and cognitive control are three related, yet separable processes that emerge over the course of development. The current study tested 100 children, adolescents, and adults on an Emotional Go/Nogo task, illustrating the ability of this paradigm to identify the unique developmental patterns for each of these three processes in the context of both positive (happy) and negative emotions (fear, sad, and anger), across three different age groups. Consistent with previous literature, our findings show that emotion discrimination and regulatory abilities (both cognitive control and emotion regulation) improve steadily for each age group, with each age group showing unique patterns of performance. The findings suggest that emotion regulation is constructed from basic cognition control and emotion discrimination skills. The patterns of behavior from the Emotional Go/Nogo task provide normative benchmark data across a wide range of emotions that can be used for future behavioral and neuroimaging studies that examine the developmental construction of emotion regulatory processes. PMID:21716604

When feeling bad is expected to be good: emotion regulation and outcome expectancies in social conflicts.

PubMed

Tamir, Maya; Ford, Brett Q

2012-08-01

According to the instrumental approach to emotion regulation, people may want to experience even unpleasant emotions to attain instrumental benefits. Building on value-expectancy models of self-regulation, we tested whether people want to feel bad in certain contexts specifically because they expect such feelings to be useful to them. In two studies, participants were more likely to try to increase their anger before a negotiation when motivated to confront (vs. collaborate with) a negotiation partner. Participants motivated to confront (vs. collaborate with) their partner expected anger to be more useful to them, and this expectation in turn, led them to try to increase their anger before negotiating. The subsequent experience of anger, following random assignment to emotion inductions (Study 1) or engagement in self-selected emotion regulation activities (Study 2), led participants to be more successful at getting others to concede to their demands, demonstrating that emotional preferences have important pragmatic implications.

Emotion and aggressive intergroup cognitions: The ANCODI hypothesis.

PubMed

Matsumoto, David; Hwang, Hyisung C; Frank, Mark G

2017-01-01

Previous research has suggested an important role for the emotion of hatred in intergroup aggression. Recent theoretical and empirical work has strongly suggested that the combination of anger, contempt, and disgust (ANCODI) comprise the basic elements of hatred, and are the key emotions associated with intergroup aggression. No study, however, has provided evidence that these emotions cause hostile cognitions about specific groups. We report two studies that provide initial evidence. In both, participants were members of ideologically motivated groups and were primed with ANCODI. In Study 1 participants primed with ANCODI produced more aggressive cognitions relative to their opponent outgroup than a neutral outgroup; this effect did not occur for participants primed with fear-sadness. In Study 2 participants primed with ANCODI engaged in more competitive decision making against their opponent outgroups than a neutral outgroup; this effect did not occur for participants primed with disgust only. These findings contribute to the literature on the role of emotion in intergroup aggression and hostility, and provide a more nuanced view of the role of emotions in intergroup relations, possibly identifying the basic emotional elements of hatred. Aggr. Behav. 43:93-107, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Women, Anger Expression, Relational and Health Consequences: A Review of the Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPherson, Kristin L.

Women's anger expression style has been the focus of several recent studies and has been demonstrated to have deleterious effects on emotional and physical health. The purpose of this study was to review the empirical literature for women's anger expression style and related health and relational consequences. The study reviewed emotion induction,…

The Relationship between the Recognition of Facial Expressions and Self-Reported Anger in People with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodcock, Kate A.; Rose, John

2007-01-01

Background: This study aims to examine the relationship between how individuals with intellectual disabilities report their own levels of anger, and the ability of those individuals to recognize emotions. It was hypothesized that increased expression of anger would be linked to lower ability to recognize facial emotional expressions and increased…

The Experience of Anger and Sadness in Everyday Problems Impacts Age Differences in Emotion Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blanchard-Fields, Fredda; Coats, Abby Heckman

2008-01-01

The authors examined regulation of the discrete emotions anger and sadness in adolescents through older adults in the context of describing everyday problem situations. The results support previous work; in comparison to younger age groups, older adults reported that they experienced less anger and reported that they used more passive and fewer…

Progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion.

PubMed

Lazarus, R S

1991-08-01

The 2 main tasks of this article are 1st, to examine what a theory of emotion must do and basic issues that it must address. These include definitional issues, whether or not physiological activity should be a defining attribute, categorical versus dimensional strategies, the reconciliation of biological universals with sociocultural sources of variability, and a classification of the emotions. The 2nd main task is to apply an analysis of appraisal patterns and the core relational themes that they produce to a number of commonly identified emotions. Anger, anxiety, sadness, and pride (to include 1 positive emotion) are used as illustrations. The purpose is to show the capability of a cognitive-motivational-relational theory to explain and predict the emotions. The role of coping in emotion is also discussed, and the article ends with a response to criticisms of a phenomenological, folk-theory outlook.

Strategic consequences of emotional misrepresentation in negotiation: The blowback effect.

PubMed

Campagna, Rachel L; Mislin, Alexandra A; Kong, Dejun Tony; Bottom, William P

2016-05-01

Recent research indicates that expressing anger elicits concession making from negotiating counterparts. When emotions are conveyed either by a computer program or by a confederate, results appear to affirm a long-standing notion that feigning anger is an effective bargaining tactic. We hypothesize this tactic actually jeopardizes postnegotiation deal implementation and subsequent exchange. Four studies directly test both tactical and strategic consequences of emotional misrepresentation. False representations of anger generated little tactical benefit but produced considerable and persistent strategic disadvantage. This disadvantage is because of an effect we call "blowback." A negotiator's misrepresented anger creates an action-reaction cycle that results in genuine anger and diminishes trust in both the negotiator and counterpart. Our findings highlight the importance of considering the strategic implications of emotional misrepresentation for negotiators interested in claiming value. We discuss the benefits of researching reciprocal interdependence between 2 or more negotiating parties and of modeling value creation beyond deal construction to include implementation of terms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Affective Environment in Families with Young Children: From Infancy to Early School Age

PubMed Central

Barry, Robin A.; Kochanska, Grazyna

2010-01-01

We examined the affective environment in 102 families studied longitudinally when children were 7, 15, 25, 38, 52, and 67 months. At each assessment, every mother-child and father-child dyad was observed in typical daily contexts. Each person’s emotions of affection, joy, and anger were coded. Both parents rated marital quality when children were 15, 52, and 67 months. Growth curve analyses, using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling, examined (a) developmental changes in emotions, (b) within-relationship influence of the partner’s emotions, (c) across-relationship influences of emotions in other parent’s interactions with the child, and (d) associations between marital quality and emotions over time. Parents’ emotional expressiveness was highest early in the child’s development, and declined thereafter. Children’s anger was highest at 15 months, and declined thereafter, and their positive emotions, particularly with mothers, increased over time. Generally, one’s positive emotions and better marital quality were associated with greater positive emotion within- and across-relationships, whereas one’s anger was associated with greater anger within- and across-relationships. However, any emotion expression elicited greater affection in the interaction partner. Parents’ neuroticism did not account for the convergence of emotions across relationships. PMID:20364900

Regulating Anger under Stress via Cognitive Reappraisal and Sadness.

PubMed

Zhan, Jun; Wu, Xiaofei; Fan, Jin; Guo, Jianyou; Zhou, Jianshe; Ren, Jun; Liu, Chang; Luo, Jing

2017-01-01

Previous studies have reported the failure of cognitive emotion regulation (CER), especially in regulating unpleasant emotions under stress. The underlying reason for this failure was the application of CER depends heavily on the executive function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but this function can be impaired by stress-related neuroendocrine hormones. This observation highlights the necessity of developing self-regulatory strategies that require less top-down cognitive control. Based on traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine, which examine how different types of emotions promote or counteract one another, we have developed a novel emotion regulation strategy whereby one emotion is used to alter another. For example, our previous experiment showed that sadness induction (after watching a sad film) could reduce aggressive behavior associated with anger [i.e., "sadness counteracts anger" (SCA)] (Zhan et al., 2015). Relative to the CER strategy requiring someone to think about certain cognitive reappraisals to reinterpret the meaning of an unpleasant situation, watching a film or listening to music and experiencing the emotion contained therein seemingly requires less cognitive effort and control; therefore, this SCA strategy may be an alternative strategy that compensates for the limitations of cognitive regulation strategies, especially in stressful situations. The present study was designed to directly compare the effects of the CER and SCA strategy in regulating anger and anger-related aggression in stressful and non-stressful conditions. Participants' subjective feeling of anger, anger-related aggressive behavior, skin conductance, and salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels were measured. Our findings revealed that acute stress impaired one's ability to use CR to control angry responses provoked by others, whereas stress did not influence the efficiency of the SCA strategy. Compared with sadness or neutral emotion induction, CER induction was found to reduce the level of subjective anger more, but this difference only existed in non-stressful conditions. By contrast, irrespective of stress, the levels of aggressive behavior and related skin conductance after sadness induction were both significantly lower than those after CER induction or neutral emotion induction, thus suggesting the immunity of the regulatory effect of SCA strategy to the stress factor.

Emotion suppression affects cardiovascular responses to initial and subsequent laboratory stressors.

PubMed

Quartana, Phillip J; Burns, John W

2010-09-01

The study of anger suppression and risk for cardiovascular disease has relied predominately on inspection of correlations between trait anger-in and cardiovascular risk factors and disease. This approach tells us little about whether inhibitory processes have anything to do with outcomes, and cannot speak to whether suppression of anger per se affects cardiovascular parameters. Drawing on the broader emotion regulation literature, we examined the effects of experimentally induced anger and general negative emotion in the context of expressive and experiential suppression on cardiovascular responses to initial and subsequent laboratory stressors. Of all participants, 201 healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of six conditions formed by crossing emotion (anxiety, anger) and suppression (experiential, expressive, control) conditions. Participants completed a mental arithmetic task with anxiety or anger induction under their respective suppression manipulation instructions, and subsequently were exposed to a cold pressor task. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate values were obtained for each experimental epoch. More robust SBP responses to the initial stressor were evidenced for those in the expressive versus the control condition. In response to the subsequent stressor, those in the experiential suppression condition showed the most pronounced SBP responses, suggesting pronounced delayed effects of this type of suppression. Effects of suppression on SBP reactivity were indistinguishable across anxiety and anger conditions. Effortful suppression of negative emotion has immediate and delayed consequences for stress-induced cardiovascular reactivity. Theoretical and clinical significance of these findings are discussed.

Disgust, contempt, and anger and the stereotypes of obese people.

PubMed

Vartanian, Lenny R; Thomas, Margaret A; Vanman, Eric J

2013-12-01

Emotions form an important part of stereotyping and prejudice, but little is known about how intergroup emotions are associated with anti-fat prejudice. This study examined the relation between negative intergroup emotions (disgust, contempt, and anger) and the stereotypes of obese people. A community sample (n = 380) and an undergraduate sample (n = 96) rated obese people on common obesity stereotypes (e.g., lazy, sloppy), and also indicated the extent to which they felt disgust, contempt, and anger toward obese people. In both samples, participants reported feeling more disgust and contempt than anger toward obese people. Furthermore, regression analyses indicated that disgust was a significant positive predictor of obesity stereotypes, but contempt and anger were not. Overall, these findings provide further evidence that disgust plays an important role in prejudice toward obese people.

Visual Search for Basic Emotional Expressions in Autism; Impaired Processing of Anger, Fear and Sadness, but a Typical Happy Face Advantage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farran, Emily K.; Branson, Amanda; King, Ben J.

2011-01-01

Facial expression recognition was investigated in 20 males with high functioning autism (HFA) or Asperger syndrome (AS), compared to typically developing individuals matched for chronological age (TD CA group) and verbal and non-verbal ability (TD V/NV group). This was the first study to employ a visual search, "face in the crowd" paradigm with a…

Cultural context moderates the relationship between emotion control values and cardiovascular challenge versus threat responses.

PubMed

Mauss, Iris B; Butler, Emily A

2010-07-01

Cultural context affects people's values regarding emotions, as well as their experiential and behavioral but not autonomic physiological responses to emotional situations. Little research, however, has examined how cultural context influences the relationships among values and emotional responding. Specifically, depending on their cultural context, individuals' values about emotion control (ECV; the extent to which they value emotion control) may have differing meanings, and as such, be associated with differing responses in emotional situations. We examined this possibility by testing the effect of two cultural contexts (28 female Asian-American (AA) versus 28 female European-American (EA) undergraduate students) on the associations between individuals' ECV and emotional responding (experiential, behavioral, and cardiovascular) to a relatively neutral film clip and a laboratory anger provocation. In the AA group, greater ECV were associated with reduced anger experience and behavior, and a challenge pattern of cardiovascular responding. In the EA group, greater ECV were associated with reduced anger behavior but not anger experience, and a threat pattern of cardiovascular responding. These results are consistent with the notion that individuals' values about emotion are associated with different meanings in different cultural contexts, and in turn, with different emotional and cardiovascular responses. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Anger Can Help: A Transactional Model and Three Pathways of the Experience and Expression of Anger.

PubMed

Butler, Mark H; Meloy-Miller, Kierea C; Seedall, Ryan B; Dicus, J Logan

2017-07-23

Anger is a significant human emotion with far-reaching implications for individuals and relationships. We propose a transactional model of anger that highlights its relational relevance and potentially positive function, in addition to problematic malformations. By evolutionary design, physical, self-concept, or attachment threats all similarly trigger diffuse physiological arousal, psychologically experienced as anger-emotion. Anger is first a signaling and motivational system. Anger is then formed to affirming, productive use or malformed to destructive ends. A functional, prosocial approach to anger organizes it for protective and corrective personal and relational adaptation. In our model, threat perception interacts with a person's view of self in relation to other to produce helpful or harmful anger. Inflated or collapsed views of self in relation to other produce distinct manifestations of destructive anger that are harmful to self, other, and relationship. Conversely, a balanced view of self in relation to other promotes constructive anger and catalyzes self, other, and relationship healing. Clinical use of the model to shape healing personal and relational contact with anger is explored. © 2017 Family Process Institute.

"You are such a disappointment!": negative emotions and parents' perceptions of adult children's lack of success.

PubMed

Cichy, Kelly E; Lefkowitz, Eva S; Davis, Eden M; Fingerman, Karen L

2013-11-01

Parents' perceptions of their adult children's successes (or lack thereof) may be associated in different ways with discrete negative emotions (e.g., guilt, anger, disappointment, and worry). Furthermore, mothers and fathers may vary in their reactions to children's success in different domains. Participants included 158 mothers and fathers from the same families (N = 316) and their adult child. Mothers and fathers evaluated their adult children's successes in (a) career and (b) relationship domains. Mothers and fathers also reported on several negative emotions in the parent-child tie: guilt, anger, disappointment, and worry. For fathers, perceptions of children's poorer career success were associated with disappointment, anger, and guilt. Mothers' perceptions of children's lack of career success were associated with disappointment and worry. Mothers' perceptions of children's poorer success in relationships were associated with each of the negative emotions, with the exception of anger. Parents experience emotions associated with unmet goals and future concerns in relationships with less successful children. Mothers may respond emotionally to career and relationship success, whereas fathers may respond emotionally primarily to their child's career success. Findings underscore the importance of considering the context of parents' negative emotional experiences in ties to adult children.

The moral emotions: a social-functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt.

PubMed

Hutcherson, Cendri A; Gross, James J

2011-04-01

Recent research has highlighted the important role of emotion in moral judgment and decision making (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001; Haidt, 2001). What is less clear is whether distinctions should be drawn among specific moral emotions. Although some have argued for differences among anger, disgust, and contempt (Rozin, Lowery, Imada, & Haidt, 1999), others have suggested that these terms may describe a single undifferentiated emotional response to morally offensive behavior (Nabi, 2002). In this article, we take a social-functionalist perspective, which makes the prediction that these emotions should be differentiable both in antecedent appraisals and in consequent actions and judgments. Studies 1-3 tested and found support for our predictions concerning distinctions among antecedent appraisals, including (a) a more general role for disgust than has been previously been described, (b) an effect of self-relevance on anger but not other emotions, and (c) a role for contempt in judging incompetent actions. Studies 4 and 5 tested and found support for our specific predictions concerning functional outcomes, providing evidence that these emotions are associated with different consequences. Taken together, these studies support a social-functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt and lay the foundation for future research on the negative interpersonal emotions.

Gender differences in the relationship between hostility and the type A behavior pattern.

PubMed

McCann, B S; Woolfolk, R L; Lehrer, P M; Schwarcz, L

1987-01-01

A group of 97 male and 111 female undergraduates completed the Jenkins Activity Survey, the Framingham Type A Scale, the Adjective Checklist Type A Scale, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. A factor analysis revealed three dimensions: Anger-Emotionality, Anger-Aggression, and Residual Pattern A. All Type A measures loaded highly on the Type A factor, with the Jenkins Activity Survey loading the highest. The Framingham Type A Scale was related to Anger-Emotionality, the Adjective Checklist Type A Scale was related to Anger-Aggression, and the Jenkins Activity Survey was related to neither of the anger dimensions. Women scored higher than men on Anger-Emotionality and the Guilt, Resentment, and Irritability subscales and lower than men on the Assaultiveness subscale. Women showed higher correlations between Type A and the Guilt subscale, and men between Type A and the Suspiciousness subscale. We conclude that Type A is a multidimensional construct that manifests itself differently in men and women.

Disgust, but not anger provocation, enhances levator labii superioris activity during exposure to moral transgressions.

PubMed

Whitton, Alexis E; Henry, Julie D; Rendell, Peter G; Grisham, Jessica R

2014-02-01

Physical disgust is elicited by, and amplifies responses to, moral transgressions, suggesting that moral disgust may be a biologically expanded form of physical disgust. However, there is limited research comparing the effects of physical disgust to that of other emotions like anger, making it difficult to determine if the link between disgust and morality is unique. The current research evaluated the specificity of the relationship between disgust and morality by comparing links with anger, using state, physiological and trait measures of emotionality. Participants (N=90) were randomly allocated to have disgust, anger or no emotion induced. Responses to images depicting moral, negative non-moral, and neutral themes were then recorded using facial electromyography. Inducing disgust, but not anger, increased psychophysiological responses to moral themes. Trait disgust, but not trait anger, correlated with levator labii responses to moral themes. These findings provide strong evidence of a unique link between physical disgust and morality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Observed Emotions as Predictors of Quality of Kindergartners’ Social Relationships

PubMed Central

Hernández, Maciel M.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Valiente, Carlos; Spinrad, Tracy L.; VanSchyndel, Sarah K.; Diaz, Anjolii; Silva, Kassondra M.; Berger, Rebecca H.; Southworth, Jody

2018-01-01

This study evaluated whether positive and anger emotional frequency (the proportion of instances an emotion was observed) and intensity (the strength of an emotion when it was observed) uniquely predicted social relationships among kindergarteners (N = 301). Emotions were observed as naturally occurring at school in the fall term and multiple reporters (peers and teachers) provided information on quality of relationships with children in the spring term. In structural equation models, positive emotion frequency, but not positive emotion intensity, was positively related to peer acceptance and negatively related to peer rejection. In contrast, the frequency of anger provided unique positive prediction of teacher–student conflict and negative prediction of peer acceptance. Furthermore, anger intensity negatively predicted teacher–student closeness and positively predicted teacher–student conflict. Implications for promoting social relationships in school are discussed. PMID:29861553

Sequences of emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Reisch, T; Ebner-Priemer, U W; Tschacher, W; Bohus, M; Linehan, M M

2008-07-01

To investigate sequences of emotions (temporal dependence of emotions) to identify specific patterns of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The perceived emotions of 50 BPD patients and 50 healthy controls (HC) were monitored by using a hand-held computer system for a 24-h period in a daily life setting. Participants were prompted four times per hour to assess their current perceived emotions. Differences between BPD patients and HC in terms of activation, persistence and down-regulation of emotions were analyzed. Healthy controls in contrast to BPD patients more often activated joy and interest. BPD patients more often experienced persistence of anxiety and sadness. BPD patients more frequently switched from anxiety to sadness, from anxiety to anger and from sadness to anxiety. Anger was predominantly preceded by anxiety. Persistence of sadness and anxiety, as well as emotional oscillating between anxiety, sadness and anger are important aspects of the emotional dysregulation in BPD patients.

Relations over Time among Children's Shyness, Emotionality, and Internalizing Problems.

PubMed

Eggum, Natalie D; Eisenberg, Nancy; Reiser, Mark; Spinrad, Tracy L; Michalik, Nicole M; Valiente, Carlos; Liew, Jeffrey; Sallquist, Julie

2012-02-01

Data regarding children's shyness and emotionality were collected at three time points, two years apart (T1: N = 214, M = 6.12 years; T2: N = 185, M = 7.67 years; T3: N = 185, M = 9.70 years), and internalizing data were collected at T1 and T3. Relations among parent-rated shyness, emotionality (parent- and teacher-rated anger, sadness, and positive emotional intensity [EI]), and mother-rated internalizing were examined in panel models. In some cases, shyness predicted emotionality two years later (teacher-rated anger, parent-rated sadness, teacher-rated positive EI) and emotionality sometimes predicted shyness two years later (teacher-rated sadness, parent-rated positive EI, teacher-rated positive EI). Parent-rated shyness and/or emotionality (parent-rated anger and parent-rated sadness) predicted internalizing at T3. Results shed light on developmental relations between emotionality and shyness, as well as processes of risk for, or protection against, the development of internalizing problems.

Physiological reactivity and facial expression to emotion-inducing films in patients with schizophrenia.

PubMed

Park, Sungwon; Kim, Kiwoong

2011-12-01

The present study aimed to investigate the physiological reactivity and recognition to emotional stimuli in outpatients with schizophrenia and in healthy controls. Skin conductance response, skin conductance level, heart rate, respiration, corrugator muscle, and orbicularis muscle were all measured using five emotion-eliciting film clips. The patients reported lower intensity of experienced anger and disgust than controls. The patient and control groups did not differ in accuracy to recognize emotions except anger. Anger, fear, amusement, and sadness had a discriminative effect on physiological responses in the two groups. These findings provide helpful physiological evidence influenced by harmful or favorable emotional stimuli. Future directions may include to clarify how physiological reactivity and subject experience to emotion are related to their functioning. 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The feeling of the story: Narrating to regulate anger and sadness.

PubMed

Pasupathi, Monisha; Wainryb, Cecilia; Mansfield, Cade D; Bourne, Stacia

2017-04-01

Admonitions to tell one's story in order to feel better reflect the belief that narrative is an effective emotion regulation tool. The present studies evaluate the effectiveness of narrative for regulating sadness and anger, and provide quantitative comparisons of narrative with distraction, reappraisal, and reexposure. The results for sadness (n = 93) and anger (n = 89) reveal that narrative is effective at down-regulating negative emotions, particularly when narratives place events in the past tense and include positive emotions. The results suggest that if people tell the "right" kind of story about their experiences, narrative reduces emotional distress linked to those experiences.

The Feeling of the Story: Narrating to Regulate Anger and Sadness

PubMed Central

Pasupathi, Monisha; Wainryb, Cecilia; Mansfield, Cade D.; Bourne, Stacia

2017-01-01

Admonitions to tell one’s story in order to feel better reflect the belief that narrative is an effective emotion regulation tool. The present studies evaluate the effectiveness of narrative for regulating sadness and anger, and provide quantitative comparisons of narrative with distraction, reappraisal, and reexposure. The results for sadness (n = 93) and anger (n = 89) reveal that narrative is effective at down-regulating negative emotions, particularly when narratives place events in the past tense and include positive emotions. The results suggest that if people tell the “right” kind of story about their experiences, narrative reduces emotional distress linked to those experiences. PMID:26745208

Effectiveness of Gross Model-Based Emotion Regulation Strategies Training on Anger Reduction in Drug-Dependent Individuals and its Sustainability in Follow-up.

PubMed

Massah, Omid; Sohrabi, Faramarz; A'azami, Yousef; Doostian, Younes; Farhoudian, Ali; Daneshmand, Reza

2016-03-01

Emotion plays an important role in adapting to life changes and stressful events. Difficulty regulating emotions is one of the problems drug abusers often face, and teaching these individuals to express and manage their emotions can be effective on improving their difficult circumstances. The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the Gross model-based emotion regulation strategies training on anger reduction in drug-dependent individuals. The present study had a quasi-experimental design wherein pretest-posttest evaluations were applied using a control group. The population under study included addicts attending Marivan's methadone maintenance therapy centers in 2012 - 2013. Convenience sampling was used to select 30 substance-dependent individuals undergoing maintenance treatment who were then randomly assigned to the experiment and control groups. The experiment group received its training in eight two-hour sessions. Data were analyzed using analysis of co-variance and paired t-test. There was significant reduction in anger symptoms of drug-dependent individuals after gross model based emotion regulation training (ERT) (P < 0.001). Moreover, the effectiveness of the training on anger was persistent in the follow-up period. Symptoms of anger in drug-dependent individuals of this study were reduced by gross model-based emotion regulation strategies training. Based on the results of this study, we may conclude that the gross model based emotion regulation strategies training can be applied alongside other therapies to treat drug abusers undergoing rehabilitation.

Differentiating the influence of incidental anger and fear on risk decision-making.

PubMed

Yang, Qiwei; Zhao, Ding; Wu, Yan; Tang, Ping; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yue-Jia

2018-02-01

Previous research has revealed that incidental emotions of different valence (positive/negative/neutral) produce distinct impacts on risk decision-making. This study went on to compare the effects of different emotions of which the valence are identical. We focused on anger and fear, both of which are negative emotions but differ in motivational and appraisal dimensions. Participants finished a forced-choice gambling task, during which incidental emotions (anger/fear/happy) were elicited by facial stimuli selected from the Chinese Facial Affective Picture System. Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded in the experiment, which showed that anger and fear were different in their influence on behavioral risk preference and the relationship between outcome processing and subsequent risk decisions. Regarding the behavioral results, risk preference in the anger condition was higher than the fear condition, but lower than the happy condition. Regarding the ERP results elicited by outcome feedback (gain/loss), in the fear condition, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) was positively correlated with risk preference; in the anger condition, the gain-related P3 component was positively correlated with risk preference; in the happy condition, both the FRN and the loss-related P3 was negatively correlated with risk preference. The current findings provide novel insight into distinguishing the effect of different incidental emotions on risk preference. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Condoned or condemned: the situational affordance of anger and shame in the United States and Japan.

PubMed

Boiger, Michael; Mesquita, Batja; Uchida, Yukiko; Feldman Barrett, Lisa

2013-04-01

Two studies tested the idea that the situations that people encounter frequently and the situations that they associate most strongly with an emotion differ across cultures in ways that can be understood from what a culture condones or condemns. In a questionnaire study, N = 163 students from the United States and Japan perceived situations as more frequent to the extent that they elicited condoned emotions (anger in the United States, shame in Japan), and they perceived situations as less frequent to the extent that they elicited condemned emotions (shame in the United States, anger in Japan). In a second study, N = 160 students from the United States and Japan free-sorted the same situations. For each emotion, the situations could be organized along two cross-culturally common dimensions. Those situations that touched upon central cultural concerns were perceived to elicit stronger emotions. The largest cultural differences were found for shame; smaller, yet meaningful, differences were found for anger.

How instructors' emotional expressions shape students' learning performance: the roles of anger, happiness, and regulatory focus.

PubMed

van Doorn, Evert A; van Kleef, Gerben A; van der Pligt, Joop

2014-06-01

How do instructors' emotional expressions influence students' learning performance? Scholars and practitioners alike have emphasized the importance of positive, nurturing emotions for successful learning. However, teachers may sometimes lose their temper and express anger at their pupils. Drawing on emotions as social information (EASI) theory, we hypothesized that expressions of anger can benefit learning performance. In Experiment 1, participants who were confronted with an angry instructor exhibited more accurate recognition of word pairs after a week of learning, compared with those who were confronted with a happy instructor. In Experiment 2, we conceptually replicated this effect on a recall task, but only among participants in a promotion rather than prevention focus. Present findings thus show, for the 1st time, that instructor anger can enhance students' performance. Findings are consistent with a conceptualization of emotion as social information and call into question the generally endorsed positivity paradigm. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Attachment-based family therapy and emotion-focused therapy for unresolved anger: The role of productive emotional processing.

PubMed

Diamond, Gary M; Shahar, Ben; Sabo, Daphna; Tsvieli, Noa

2016-03-01

A growing body of research suggests that emotional processing is a central and common change mechanism across various types of therapies (Diener & Hilsenroth, 2009; Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2006; Greenberg, 2011). This study examined whether 10 weeks of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), characterized by the use of in-session young adult-parent dialogues, were more effective than 10 weeks of individual emotion-focused therapy (EFT), characterized by the use of imaginal dialogues, in terms of facilitating productive emotional processing among a sample of 32 young adults presenting with unresolved anger toward a parent. This study also examined whether greater amounts of productive emotional processing predicted more favorable treatment outcomes. In contrast to our expectations, we found significantly more productive emotional processing in individual EFT than in conjoint ABFT. Results also showed that while both treatments led to significant and equivalent decreases in unresolved anger, state anger, attachment anxiety, and psychological symptoms, only ABFT was associated with decreases in attachment avoidance. Although amount of emotional processing did not explain the unique decrease in attachment avoidance in ABFT, greater amounts of productive emotional processing predicted greater decreases in psychological symptoms (but not other outcome measures) across both treatments. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Posttraumatic Anger, Recalled Peritraumatic Emotions, and PTSD in Victims of Violent Crime

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kunst, M. J. J.; Winkel, F. W.; Bogaerts, S.

2011-01-01

A mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal design was employed to explore the association between posttraumatic anger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; symptoms) in victims of civilian violence. It was speculated that this relationship is mainly due to concurrent recalled peritraumatic emotions. Such emotions may be interpreted to result from…

Anticipated Coping with Interpersonal Stressors: Links with the Emotional Reactions of Sadness, Anger, and Fear

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J.; Skinner, Ellen A.; Morris, Helen; Thomas, Rae

2013-01-01

The same stressor can evoke different emotions across individuals, and emotions can prompt certain coping responses. Responding to four videotaped interpersonal stressors, adolescents ("N" = 230, the average values of "X"[subscript age] = 10 years) reported their sadness, fear "and" anger, and 12 coping strategies.…

The face of fear and anger: Facial width-to-height ratio biases recognition of angry and fearful expressions.

PubMed

Deska, Jason C; Lloyd, E Paige; Hugenberg, Kurt

2018-04-01

The ability to rapidly and accurately decode facial expressions is adaptive for human sociality. Although judgments of emotion are primarily determined by musculature, static face structure can also impact emotion judgments. The current work investigates how facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), a stable feature of all faces, influences perceivers' judgments of expressive displays of anger and fear (Studies 1a, 1b, & 2), and anger and happiness (Study 3). Across 4 studies, we provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that perceivers more readily see anger on faces with high fWHR compared with those with low fWHR, which instead facilitates the recognition of fear and happiness. This bias emerges when participants are led to believe that targets displaying otherwise neutral faces are attempting to mask an emotion (Studies 1a & 1b), and is evident when faces display an emotion (Studies 2 & 3). Together, these studies suggest that target facial width-to-height ratio biases ascriptions of emotion with consequences for emotion recognition speed and accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Alterations in the Emotional Regulation Process in Gambling Addiction: The Role of Anger and Alexithymia.

PubMed

Maniaci, Giuseppe; Picone, Francesca; van Holst, Ruth J; Bolloni, Corinna; Scardina, Silvana; Cannizzaro, Carla

2017-06-01

This study aims at the assessment of alexithymia and anger levels in 100 treatment-seeking pathological gamblers compared with controls, who were matched for age, gender and education. Furthermore a positive correlation between alexithymia, anger and severity of gambling disorder and a relationship between gambling behaviour and anger after controlling for alexithymia, are investigated. Finally the role that gender plays in anger in pathological gamblers was also evaluated. Psychological assessment includes the South Oaks Gambling Screen, State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 and the twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Statistical analysis of the results shows a higher level of anger in pathological gamblers than in controls, together with alterations in emotional processing. Severity of gambling behaviour positively correlates with alexithymia scores, state-anger and trait-anger. Moreover, a significant contribution of anger in predicting gambling behaviour was suggested after controlling for alexithymia. In conclusion, anger and alexithymia must be regarded as relevant components of the assessment of pathological gamblers, in order to select the best therapeutical strategies to prevent self-defeating behaviours and to reduce drop-out from treatments.

Should people pursue feelings that feel good or feelings that do good? Emotional preferences and well-being.

PubMed

Tamir, Maya; Ford, Brett Q

2012-10-01

Is it adaptive to seek pleasant emotions and avoid unpleasant emotions all the time or seek pleasant and unpleasant emotions at the right time? Participants reported on their preferences for anger and happiness in general and in contexts in which they might be useful or not (i.e., confrontations and collaborations, respectively). People who generally wanted to feel more happiness and less anger experienced greater well-being. However, when emotional preferences were examined in context, people who wanted to feel more anger or more happiness when they were useful, and people who wanted to feel less of those emotions when they were not useful, experienced greater well-being. Such patterns could not be explained by differences in the perceived usefulness of emotions, intelligence, perceived regulatory skills, emotional acceptance, social desirability, or general emotional preferences. These findings demonstrate that people who want to feel unpleasant emotions when they are useful may be happier overall.

A constructionist review of morality and emotions: no evidence for specific links between moral content and discrete emotions.

PubMed

Cameron, C Daryl; Lindquist, Kristen A; Gray, Kurt

2015-11-01

Morality and emotions are linked, but what is the nature of their correspondence? Many "whole number" accounts posit specific correspondences between moral content and discrete emotions, such that harm is linked to anger, and purity is linked to disgust. A review of the literature provides little support for these specific morality-emotion links. Moreover, any apparent specificity may arise from global features shared between morality and emotion, such as affect and conceptual content. These findings are consistent with a constructionist perspective of the mind, which argues against a whole number of discrete and domain-specific mental mechanisms underlying morality and emotion. Instead, constructionism emphasizes the flexible combination of basic and domain-general ingredients such as core affect and conceptualization in creating the experience of moral judgments and discrete emotions. The implications of constructionism in moral psychology are discussed, and we propose an experimental framework for rigorously testing morality-emotion links. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Searching for emotion or race: task-irrelevant facial cues have asymmetrical effects.

PubMed

Lipp, Ottmar V; Craig, Belinda M; Frost, Mareka J; Terry, Deborah J; Smith, Joanne R

2014-01-01

Facial cues of threat such as anger and other race membership are detected preferentially in visual search tasks. However, it remains unclear whether these facial cues interact in visual search. If both cues equally facilitate search, a symmetrical interaction would be predicted; anger cues should facilitate detection of other race faces and cues of other race membership should facilitate detection of anger. Past research investigating this race by emotional expression interaction in categorisation tasks revealed an asymmetrical interaction. This suggests that cues of other race membership may facilitate the detection of angry faces but not vice versa. Utilising the same stimuli and procedures across two search tasks, participants were asked to search for targets defined by either race or emotional expression. Contrary to the results revealed in the categorisation paradigm, cues of anger facilitated detection of other race faces whereas differences in race did not differentially influence detection of emotion targets.

Does Comorbid Anger Exacerbate the Rejection of Children with Depression by their School Peers?

PubMed

Martinez, Yuri Arsenio Sanz; Schneider, Barry H; Zambrana, Aaron; Batista, Grethel Selva; Soca, Zayda Sanchez

2015-08-01

Depression in childhood and adolescence is often accompanied with social rejection by peers, which accentuates the course of that emotion. Despite the documented association between anger and depression, little is known about the impact of the interaction of both emotions on peer relations. The main objective of this study is to explore the interpersonal implications of depression with comorbid anger in a pediatric sample. The sample consisted of 466 participants; the mean age was 11.45 (SD = 1.55). There were 231 females (49.6 %) and 235 males (50.4 %). ANOVAs revealed significant differences between boys and girls in depression, aggression, anger experience/explosive anger and internalized responses to anger. There were no significant differences between the correlations computed with the data from boys and girls for the hypothesized associations among anger, aggression, depression, and peer acceptance/rejection. Both Anger-Out and Depression were significantly associated with perceived unpopularity. Additionally, the interaction of Anger-Out and Depression added significantly to the prediction of perceived unpopularity.

Automatic integration of social information in emotion recognition.

PubMed

Mumenthaler, Christian; Sander, David

2015-04-01

This study investigated the automaticity of the influence of social inference on emotion recognition. Participants were asked to recognize dynamic facial expressions of emotion (fear or anger in Experiment 1 and blends of fear and surprise or of anger and disgust in Experiment 2) in a target face presented at the center of a screen while a subliminal contextual face appearing in the periphery expressed an emotion (fear or anger) or not (neutral) and either looked at the target face or not. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that recognition of the target emotion of fear was improved when a subliminal angry contextual face gazed toward-rather than away from-the fearful face. We replicated this effect in Experiment 2, in which facial expression blends of fear and surprise were more often and more rapidly categorized as expressing fear when the subliminal contextual face expressed anger and gazed toward-rather than away from-the target face. With the contextual face appearing for 30 ms in total, including only 10 ms of emotion expression, and being immediately masked, our data provide the first evidence that social influence on emotion recognition can occur automatically. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

[The emotional characteristics of the sounding word].

PubMed

Videneeva, N M; Khludova, O O; Vartanov, A V

2000-01-01

The four-dimensional spherical emotional space has been obtained by multi-dimensional scaling of subjective differences between the emotional expressions in sound samples (the words "Yes" and "No" pronounced in different emotional conditions). Euclidean space axes are interpreted as the following neural mechanisms. The first two dimensions are related with the estimation of a sign of emotional condition: the dimension 1--pleasant/unpleasant, useful or not, the dimension 2--an extent of information certainty. The third and the fourth axes are associated with the incentive. The dimension 3 encodes active (anger) or passive (fear) defensive reaction, and the dimension 4 corresponds to achievement. Three angles of four-dimensional hypersphere: the one between the axes 1 and 2, the second between the axes 3 and 4, the third between these two planes determine subjectively experienced emotion characteristics such as described by Vundt emotion modality (pleasure-unpleaure), excitation-quietness-suppression, and tension-relaxation, respectively. Thus, the first and the second angles regulate the modality of ten basic emotions: five emotions determined by a situation and five emotions determined by personal activity. In case of another system of angular parameters (three angles between the axes 4 and 1, 3 and 2, and the angle between the respective planes), another system of emotion classification, which is usually described in the studies of facial expressions (Shlosberg's and Izmaĭlov's circular system) and semantics (Osgood) can be realized: emotion modality or sign (regulates 6 basic emotions), emotion activity or brightness (excitation-rest) and emotion saturation (strength of emotion expression).

Pubertal development of the understanding of social emotions: Implications for education

PubMed Central

Burnett, Stephanie; Thompson, Stephanie; Bird, Geoffrey; Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne

2011-01-01

Recent developmental cognitive neuroscience research has supported the notion that puberty and adolescence are periods of profound socio-emotional development. The current study was designed to investigate whether the onset of puberty marks an increase in the awareness of complex, or “mixed,” emotions. Eighty-three female participants (aged 9–16 years) were divided into three groups according to a self-report measure of puberty stage (early-, mid- and post-puberty). Participants were presented with emotional scenarios, and used four linear scales to rate their emotional response to each scenario. Scenarios were designed to evoke social emotions (embarrassment or guilt) or basic emotions (anger or fear), where social emotions are defined as those which require the representation of others' mental states. We measured the relative complexity or “mixedness” of emotional responses, that is, the degree to which participants reported feeling more than one emotion for a given scenario. We found that mixed emotion reporting increased between early- and post-puberty for social emotion scenarios, and showed no relationship with age, whereas there was no change in mixed emotion reporting for basic emotion scenarios across age or puberty groups. This suggests that the awareness of mixed emotions develops during the course of puberty, and that this development is specific to social emotions. Results are discussed in the context of brain development across puberty and adolescence, with speculation regarding the potential implications for education. PMID:22211052

Cognitive-Behavioral Conceptualization and Treatment of Anger

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deffenbacher, Jerry L.

2011-01-01

Anger is conceptualized within a broad cognitive-behavioral (CBT) framework emphasizing triggering events; the person's pre-anger state, including temporary conditions and more enduring cognitive and familial/cultural processes; primary and secondary appraisal processes; the anger experience/response (cognitive, emotional, and physiological…

Dataset reporting the perceiver identification rates of basic emotions expressed by male, female and ambiguous gendered walkers in full-light, point-light and synthetically modelled point-light walkers.

PubMed

Halovic, Shaun; Kroos, Christian

2017-12-01

This data set describes the experimental data collected and reported in the research article "Walking my way? Walker gender and display format confounds the perception of specific emotions" (Halovic and Kroos, in press) [1]. The data set represent perceiver identification rates for different emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear and neutral), as displayed by full-light, point-light and synthetic point-light walkers. The perceiver identification scores have been transformed into H t rates, which represent proportions/percentages of correct identifications above what would be expected by chance. This data set also provides H t rates separately for male, female and ambiguously gendered walkers.

Beat them or ban them: the characteristics and social functions of anger and contempt.

PubMed

Fischer, Agneta H; Roseman, Ira J

2007-07-01

This article reports 3 studies in which the authors examined (a) the distinctive characteristics of anger and contempt responses and (b) the interpersonal causes and effects of both emotions. In the 1st study, the authors examined the distinction between the 2 emotions; in the 2nd study, the authors tested whether contempt could be predicted from previous anger incidents with the same person; and in the 3rd study, the authors examined the effects of type of relationship on anger and contempt reactions. The results of the 3 studies show that anger and contempt often occur together but that there are clear distinctions between the 2 emotions: Anger is characterized more by short-term attack responses but long-term reconciliation, whereas contempt is characterized by rejection and social exclusion of the other person, both in the short-term and in the long-term. The authors also found that contempt may develop out of previously experienced anger and that a lack of intimacy with and perceived control over the behavior of the other person, as well as negative dispositional attributions about the other person, predicted the emergence of contempt. Copyright 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

Parent-child discussions of anger and sadness: the importance of parent and child gender during middle childhood.

PubMed

Zeman, Janice; Perry-Parrish, Carisa; Cassano, Michael

2010-01-01

This chapter provides conceptual background and empirical evidence that parental emotion socialization continues well into middle childhood and is influenced by the social context. Data are presented to illustrate the influence of parent and child gender on parental socialization of emotion in 113 Caucasian, middle-class children. Mothers and fathers discussed historical sadness- and anger-eliciting events with their sons and daughters. Fathers appear to play a unique role in sadness socialization whereas mothers' influence seems distinctive for the socialization of anger. Socialization of emotion is a transactional process in which parents and children are both socializing agents and emotion regulators. (c) Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In search of the emotional face: anger versus happiness superiority in visual search.

PubMed

Savage, Ruth A; Lipp, Ottmar V; Craig, Belinda M; Becker, Stefanie I; Horstmann, Gernot

2013-08-01

Previous research has provided inconsistent results regarding visual search for emotional faces, yielding evidence for either anger superiority (i.e., more efficient search for angry faces) or happiness superiority effects (i.e., more efficient search for happy faces), suggesting that these results do not reflect on emotional expression, but on emotion (un-)related low-level perceptual features. The present study investigated possible factors mediating anger/happiness superiority effects; specifically search strategy (fixed vs. variable target search; Experiment 1), stimulus choice (Nimstim database vs. Ekman & Friesen database; Experiments 1 and 2), and emotional intensity (Experiment 3 and 3a). Angry faces were found faster than happy faces regardless of search strategy using faces from the Nimstim database (Experiment 1). By contrast, a happiness superiority effect was evident in Experiment 2 when using faces from the Ekman and Friesen database. Experiment 3 employed angry, happy, and exuberant expressions (Nimstim database) and yielded anger and happiness superiority effects, respectively, highlighting the importance of the choice of stimulus materials. Ratings of the stimulus materials collected in Experiment 3a indicate that differences in perceived emotional intensity, pleasantness, or arousal do not account for differences in search efficiency. Across three studies, the current investigation indicates that prior reports of anger or happiness superiority effects in visual search are likely to reflect on low-level visual features associated with the stimulus materials used, rather than on emotion. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Predictive Association between Social Information Processing and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calvete, Esther; Orue, Izaskun

2012-01-01

The primary aim of this study was to assess the moderating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between some components of social information processing (hostile interpretation and anger) and aggressive behavior. The secondary aim was to assess whether emotion regulation, hostile interpretation, and anger account for gender differences…

On English Speakers' Ability to Communicate Emotion in Mandarin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jian, Hua-Li

2015-01-01

The ability of Mandarin learners to express emotion in Mandarin has received little attention. This study examines how English L1 users express emotions in Mandarin and how this expression differs from that of Mandarin L1 users. Scenarios were adopted to elicit joy, anger, sadness, fear, and neutrality. Both groups articulated anger, joy, and fear…

Effectiveness of Emotional Intelligence Group Training on Anger in Adolescents with Substance-Abusing Fathers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hojjat, Seyed Kaveh; Rezaei, Mahdi; Namadian, Gholamreza; Hatami, Seyed Esmaeil; Norozi Khalili, Mina

2017-01-01

Parental substance abuse is associated with impaired skills and ability to take care of children. Children of substance-abusing parents display higher levels of emotional difficulties. This article shows the effectiveness of emotional intelligence group training on anger in adolescents with substance-abusing fathers. The sample consisted of 60…

Emotion and Social Network Perceptions: How Does Anger Bias Perceptions of Networks?

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

indicate the extent to which they felt angry because previous research suggests that labeling emotions may reduce their impact (Lerner & Keltner , 2000...AFRL-AFOSR-UK-TR-2013-0009 Emotion and Social Network Perceptions: How Does Anger Bias Perceptions of Networks? Professor...REPORT TYPE Final Report 3. DATES COVERED (From – To) 26 August 2011 – 23 February 2013 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Emotion and Social Network

“You Are Such a Disappointment!”: Negative Emotions and Parents’ Perceptions of Adult Children’s Lack of Success

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Objectives. Parents’ perceptions of their adult children’s successes (or lack thereof) may be associated in different ways with discrete negative emotions (e.g., guilt, anger, disappointment, and worry). Furthermore, mothers and fathers may vary in their reactions to children’s success in different domains. Method. Participants included 158 mothers and fathers from the same families (N = 316) and their adult child. Mothers and fathers evaluated their adult children’s successes in (a) career and (b) relationship domains. Mothers and fathers also reported on several negative emotions in the parent–child tie: guilt, anger, disappointment, and worry. Results. For fathers, perceptions of children’s poorer career success were associated with disappointment, anger, and guilt. Mothers’ perceptions of children’s lack of career success were associated with disappointment and worry. Mothers’ perceptions of children’s poorer success in relationships were associated with each of the negative emotions, with the exception of anger. Discussion. Parents experience emotions associated with unmet goals and future concerns in relationships with less successful children. Mothers may respond emotionally to career and relationship success, whereas fathers may respond emotionally primarily to their child’s career success. Findings underscore the importance of considering the context of parents’ negative emotional experiences in ties to adult children. PMID:23733857

Hot or cold: is communicating anger or threats more effective in negotiation?

PubMed

Sinaceur, Marwan; Van Kleef, Gerben A; Neale, Margaret A; Adam, Hajo; Haag, Christophe

2011-09-01

Is communicating anger or threats more effective in eliciting concessions in negotiation? Recent research has emphasized the effectiveness of anger communication, an emotional strategy. In this article, we argue that anger communication conveys an implied threat, and we document that issuing threats is a more effective negotiation strategy than communicating anger. In 3 computer-mediated negotiation experiments, participants received either angry or threatening messages from a simulated counterpart. Experiment 1 showed that perceptions of threat mediated the effect of anger (vs. a control) on concessions. Experiment 2 showed that (a) threat communication elicited greater concessions than anger communication and (b) poise (being confident and in control of one's own feelings and decisions) ascribed to the counterpart mediated the positive effect of threat compared to anger on concessions. Experiment 3 replicated this positive effect of threat over anger when recipients had an attractive alternative to a negotiated agreement. These findings qualify previous research on anger communication in negotiation. Implications for the understanding of emotion and negotiation are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

Regulating Anger under Stress via Cognitive Reappraisal and Sadness

PubMed Central

Zhan, Jun; Wu, Xiaofei; Fan, Jin; Guo, Jianyou; Zhou, Jianshe; Ren, Jun; Liu, Chang; Luo, Jing

2017-01-01

Previous studies have reported the failure of cognitive emotion regulation (CER), especially in regulating unpleasant emotions under stress. The underlying reason for this failure was the application of CER depends heavily on the executive function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but this function can be impaired by stress-related neuroendocrine hormones. This observation highlights the necessity of developing self-regulatory strategies that require less top-down cognitive control. Based on traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine, which examine how different types of emotions promote or counteract one another, we have developed a novel emotion regulation strategy whereby one emotion is used to alter another. For example, our previous experiment showed that sadness induction (after watching a sad film) could reduce aggressive behavior associated with anger [i.e., “sadness counteracts anger” (SCA)] (Zhan et al., 2015). Relative to the CER strategy requiring someone to think about certain cognitive reappraisals to reinterpret the meaning of an unpleasant situation, watching a film or listening to music and experiencing the emotion contained therein seemingly requires less cognitive effort and control; therefore, this SCA strategy may be an alternative strategy that compensates for the limitations of cognitive regulation strategies, especially in stressful situations. The present study was designed to directly compare the effects of the CER and SCA strategy in regulating anger and anger-related aggression in stressful and non-stressful conditions. Participants’ subjective feeling of anger, anger-related aggressive behavior, skin conductance, and salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels were measured. Our findings revealed that acute stress impaired one’s ability to use CR to control angry responses provoked by others, whereas stress did not influence the efficiency of the SCA strategy. Compared with sadness or neutral emotion induction, CER induction was found to reduce the level of subjective anger more, but this difference only existed in non-stressful conditions. By contrast, irrespective of stress, the levels of aggressive behavior and related skin conductance after sadness induction were both significantly lower than those after CER induction or neutral emotion induction, thus suggesting the immunity of the regulatory effect of SCA strategy to the stress factor. PMID:28855881

Effectiveness of Gross Model-Based Emotion Regulation Strategies Training on Anger Reduction in Drug-Dependent Individuals and its Sustainability in Follow-up

PubMed Central

Massah, Omid; Sohrabi, Faramarz; A’azami, Yousef; Doostian, Younes; Farhoudian, Ali; Daneshmand, Reza

2016-01-01

Background Emotion plays an important role in adapting to life changes and stressful events. Difficulty regulating emotions is one of the problems drug abusers often face, and teaching these individuals to express and manage their emotions can be effective on improving their difficult circumstances. Objectives The present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the Gross model-based emotion regulation strategies training on anger reduction in drug-dependent individuals. Patients and Methods The present study had a quasi-experimental design wherein pretest-posttest evaluations were applied using a control group. The population under study included addicts attending Marivan’s methadone maintenance therapy centers in 2012 - 2013. Convenience sampling was used to select 30 substance-dependent individuals undergoing maintenance treatment who were then randomly assigned to the experiment and control groups. The experiment group received its training in eight two-hour sessions. Data were analyzed using analysis of co-variance and paired t-test. Results There was significant reduction in anger symptoms of drug-dependent individuals after gross model based emotion regulation training (ERT) (P < 0.001). Moreover, the effectiveness of the training on anger was persistent in the follow-up period. Conclusions Symptoms of anger in drug-dependent individuals of this study were reduced by gross model-based emotion regulation strategies training. Based on the results of this study, we may conclude that the gross model based emotion regulation strategies training can be applied alongside other therapies to treat drug abusers undergoing rehabilitation. PMID:27162759

Anger and the ABC model underlying Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy.

PubMed

Ziegler, Daniel J; Smith, Phillip N

2004-06-01

The ABC model underlying Ellis's Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy predicts that people who think more irrationally should display greater trait anger than do people who think less irrationally. This study tested this prediction regarding the ABC model. 186 college students were administered the Survey of Personal Beliefs and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-Second Edition to measure irrational thinking and trait anger, respectively. Students who scored higher on Overall Irrational Thinking and Low Frustration Tolerance scored significantly higher on Trait Anger than did those who scored lower on Overall Irrational Thinking and Low Frustration Tolerance. This indicates support for the ABC model, especially Ellis's construct of irrational beliefs which is central to the model.

Measurement Invariance and Convergent Validity of Anger and Sadness Self-Regulation Scales Among Youth from Six Cultural Groups

PubMed Central

Di Giunta, Laura; Iselin, Anne-Marie R.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Concetta, Pastorelli; Gerbino, Maria; Lansford, Jennifer E.; Dodge, Kenneth A.; Caprara, Gian Vittorio; Bacchini, Dario; Tirado, Liliana Maria Uribe; Thartori, Eriona

2016-01-01

The present study examined measurement invariance and convergent validity of a novel vignette-based measure of emotion specific self-regulation that simultaneously assesses attributional bias, emotion-regulation, and self-efficacy beliefs about emotion regulation. Participants included 541 youth-mother dyads from three countries (Italy, United States, and Colombia) and six ethnic/cultural groups. Participants were 12.62 years old (SD = 0.69). In response to vignettes involving ambiguous peer interactions, children reported their hostile/depressive attribution bias, self-efficacy beliefs about anger and sadness regulation, and anger/sadness regulation strategies (i.e., dysregulated expression and rumination). Across the six cultural groups, anger and sadness self-regulation subscales had full metric and partial scalar invariance for a one-factor model, with some exceptions. We found support for both a four- and three-factor oblique model (dysregulated expression and rumination loaded on a second-order factor) for both anger and sadness. Anger subscales were related to externalizing problems, while sadness subscales were related to internalizing symptoms. PMID:26603118

Examining the Direct and Indirect Effects of Fear and Anger on Criminal Decision Making Among Known Offenders.

PubMed

Bouffard, Jeff A

2015-12-01

Deterrence represents the central theoretical core of the American criminal justice system, yet relatively little attention has been paid to how emotions like fear and anger may relate to deterrence. Psychological research has debated whether negative emotions each have similar impacts on decision making (valence approaches) or if distinct emotions have unique impacts (appraisal tendency approaches). This study explores the direct and indirect influences of fear and anger on hypothetical drunk driving likelihood, including their impact on cost perceptions. Surveys were administered to 1,013 male and female incarcerated felony offenders in the Southwestern United States. Using a multivariate path model and controlling for a number of other individual factors, current fear related to increased cost perceptions and anger to decreased costs. Anger also maintained a direct influence on drunk driving, whereas fear did not. Despite their shared negative valence, fear and anger appear to have dissimilar influences on cost perceptions and criminal decision making. A better understanding of these processes may lead to improved crime prevention approaches. © The Author(s) 2014.

Impaired recognition of facial emotions from low-spatial frequencies in Asperger syndrome.

PubMed

Kätsyri, Jari; Saalasti, Satu; Tiippana, Kaisa; von Wendt, Lennart; Sams, Mikko

2008-01-01

The theory of 'weak central coherence' [Happe, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 5-25] implies that persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have a perceptual bias for local but not for global stimulus features. The recognition of emotional facial expressions representing various different levels of detail has not been studied previously in ASDs. We analyzed the recognition of four basic emotional facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear and happiness) from low-spatial frequencies (overall global shapes without local features) in adults with an ASD. A group of 20 participants with Asperger syndrome (AS) was compared to a group of non-autistic age- and sex-matched controls. Emotion recognition was tested from static and dynamic facial expressions whose spatial frequency contents had been manipulated by low-pass filtering at two levels. The two groups recognized emotions similarly from non-filtered faces and from dynamic vs. static facial expressions. In contrast, the participants with AS were less accurate than controls in recognizing facial emotions from very low-spatial frequencies. The results suggest intact recognition of basic facial emotions and dynamic facial information, but impaired visual processing of global features in ASDs.

Isolating N400 as neural marker of vocal anger processing in 6-11-year old children.

PubMed

Chronaki, Georgia; Broyd, Samantha; Garner, Matthew; Hadwin, Julie A; Thompson, Margaret J J; Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J S

2012-04-01

Vocal anger is a salient social signal serving adaptive functions in typical child development. Despite recent advances in the developmental neuroscience of emotion processing with regard to visual stimuli, little remains known about the neural correlates of vocal anger processing in childhood. This study represents the first attempt to isolate a neural marker of vocal anger processing in children using electrophysiological methods. We compared ERP wave forms during the processing of non-word emotional vocal stimuli in a population sample of 55 6-11-year-old typically developing children. Children listened to three types of stimuli expressing angry, happy, and neutral prosody and completed an emotion identification task with three response options (angry, happy and neutral/'ok'). A distinctive N400 component which was modulated by emotional content of vocal stimulus was observed in children over parietal and occipital scalp regions-amplitudes were significantly attenuated to angry compared to happy and neutral voices. Findings of the present study regarding the N400 are compatible with adult studies showing reduced N400 amplitudes to negative compared to neutral emotional stimuli. Implications for studies of the neural basis of vocal anger processing in children are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Promotion in mental health, nursing creating and intervening with children's stories].

PubMed

Braga, Gimene Cardozo; Silveira, Esalba Maria; Coimbra, Valéria Cristina Christello; Porto, Adrize Rutz

2011-03-01

This paper refers to the importance of the childish stories as an instrument for the nursing action and the mental health promotion in childhood. The objective was to veriyj the recognition of the children's emotions, through stories specific to health. This is a descriptive-exploratory study of a qualitative nature, conducted in seven groups meetings with six children aged seven to ten years in an outpatient childish mental health. In the data collection the following were used as instruments: six fairy tales, the play of emotions, emotional faces, drawings, paintings and clay sculptures. Thematic analysis was used in which the following emerged, the recognition of emotions. The children recognized four basics emotions: sadness, joy, fear and anger. It was found in the study that the creation of contextualized stories and the strategy of storytelling group may be useful as a tool for research and qualification of nursing actions, to promote children's mental health.

Cultural relativity in perceiving emotion from vocalizations

PubMed Central

Gendron, Maria; Roberson, Debi; van der Vyver, Jacoba Marietta; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2014-01-01

A central question in the study of human behavior is whether or not certain emotions, such as anger, fear and sadness, are recognized across cultures in non-verbal cues. We predicted and found that in a concept-free experimental task, participants from an isolated cultural context (the Himba ethnic group from Northwest Namibia) do not freely label Western vocalizations with expected emotion terms. Responses indicated Himba participants perceived more basic affective properties of valence (positivity or negativity) and to some extent arousal (high or low activation). In a second concept-embedded task, we manipulated whether a given trial could be solved using only affective content or discrete emotion content based on the foil choice. Above chance accuracy in Himba participants occurred only when foils differed from targets in valence, indicating that the voice can reliably convey affective meaning across cultures, but that perceptions of emotion from the voice are culturally variable. PMID:24501109

Relations over Time among Children's Shyness, Emotionality, and Internalizing Problems

PubMed Central

Eggum, Natalie D.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Reiser, Mark; Spinrad, Tracy L.; Michalik, Nicole M.; Valiente, Carlos; Liew, Jeffrey; Sallquist, Julie

2011-01-01

Data regarding children's shyness and emotionality were collected at three time points, two years apart (T1: N = 214, M = 6.12 years; T2: N = 185, M = 7.67 years; T3: N = 185, M = 9.70 years), and internalizing data were collected at T1 and T3. Relations among parent-rated shyness, emotionality (parent- and teacher-rated anger, sadness, and positive emotional intensity [EI]), and mother-rated internalizing were examined in panel models. In some cases, shyness predicted emotionality two years later (teacher-rated anger, parent-rated sadness, teacher-rated positive EI) and emotionality sometimes predicted shyness two years later (teacher-rated sadness, parent-rated positive EI, teacher-rated positive EI). Parent-rated shyness and/or emotionality (parent-rated anger and parent-rated sadness) predicted internalizing at T3. Results shed light on developmental relations between emotionality and shyness, as well as processes of risk for, or protection against, the development of internalizing problems. PMID:22383862

Emotional and Social Factors influence Poker Decision Making Accuracy.

PubMed

Laakasuo, Michael; Palomäki, Jussi; Salmela, Mikko

2015-09-01

Poker is a social game, where success depends on both game strategic knowledge and emotion regulation abilities. Thus, poker provides a productive environment for studying the effects of emotional and social factors on micro-economic decision making. Previous research indicates that experiencing negative emotions, such as moral anger, reduces mathematical accuracy in poker decision making. Furthermore, various social aspects of the game—such as losing against "bad players" due to "bad luck"—seem to fuel these emotional states. We designed an Internet-based experiment, where participants' (N = 459) mathematical accuracy in five different poker decision making tasks were assessed. In addition, we manipulated the emotional and social conditions under which the tasks were presented, in a 2 × 2 experimental setup: (1) Anger versus neutral emotional state—participants were primed either with an anger-inducing, or emotionally neutral story, and (2) Social cue versus non-social cue—during the tasks, either an image of a pair of human eyes was "following" the mouse cursor, or an image of a black moving box was presented. The results showed that anger reduced mathematical accuracy of decision making only when participants were "being watched" by a pair of moving eyes. Experienced poker players made mathematically more accurate decisions than inexperienced ones. The results contribute to current understanding on how emotional and social factors influence decision making accuracy in economic games.

Facial emotion expression recognition by children at familial risk for depression: High risk boys are oversensitive to sadness

PubMed Central

Lopez-Duran, Nestor L.; Kuhlman, Kate R.; George, Charles; Kovacs, Maria

2012-01-01

In the present study we examined perceptual sensitivity to facial expressions of sadness among children at familial-risk for depression (N = 64) and low-risk peers (N = 40) between the ages 7 and 13(Mage = 9.51; SD = 2.27). Participants were presented with pictures of facial expressions that varied in emotional intensity from neutral to full-intensity sadness or anger (i.e., emotion recognition), or pictures of faces morphing from anger to sadness (emotion discrimination). After each picture was presented, children indicated whether the face showed a specific emotion (i.e., sadness, anger) or no emotion at all (neutral). In the emotion recognition task, boys (but not girls) at familial-risk for depression identified sadness at significantly lower levels of emotional intensity than did their low-risk peers. The high and low-risk groups did not differ with regard to identification of anger. In the emotion discrimination task, both groups displayed over-identification of sadness in ambiguous mixed faces but high-risk youth were less likely to show this labeling bias than their peers. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that enhanced perceptual sensitivity to subtle traces of sadness in facial expressions may be a potential mechanism of risk among boys at familial-risk for depression. This enhanced perceptual sensitivity does not appear to be due to biases in the labeling of ambiguous faces. PMID:23106941

A Longitudinal Analysis of Anger and Inhibitory Control in Twins from 12–36 Months of Age

PubMed Central

Goldsmith, H. Hill

2010-01-01

Inhibitory control (IC) is a dimension of child temperament that involves the self-regulation of behavioral responses under some form of instruction or expectation. Although IC is posited to appear in toddlerhood, the voluntary control of emotions such as anger begins earlier. Little research has analyzed relations between emotional development in infancy and later emerging IC. We examined phenotypic associations and genetic and environmental influences on parent-and laboratory-assessed anger and IC in a twin sample from 12 to 36 months of age. Typically, twins with low levels of IC had high levels of anger. Behavioral genetic findings confirmed significant genetic influences on anger and IC as assessed by parents, and on lab-based anger assessments. Shared environmental factors contributed to twin similarity on lab-assessed anger and IC at 36 months. Phenotypic covariance between anger and IC was largely due to overlapping genetic factors for parent ratings, and environmental factors in the laboratory. PMID:21159093

Knowing when to seek anger: Psychological health and context-sensitive emotional preferences.

PubMed

Kim, Min Y; Ford, Brett Q; Mauss, Iris; Tamir, Maya

2015-01-01

According to hedonic approaches to psychological health, healthy individuals should pursue pleasant and avoid unpleasant emotions. According to instrumental approaches, however, healthy individuals should pursue useful and avoid harmful emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant. We sought to reconcile these approaches by distinguishing between preferences for emotions that are aggregated across contexts and preferences for emotions within specific contexts. Across five days, we assessed daily confrontational and collaborative demands and daily preferences for anger and happiness. Somewhat consistent with hedonic approaches, when averaging across contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel less anger, but not more happiness. Somewhat consistent with instrumental approaches, when examined within contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel angrier in more confrontational contexts, and some wanted to feel happier in more collaborative contexts. Thus, although healthier individuals are motivated to avoid unpleasant emotions over time, they are more motivated to experience them when they are potentially useful.

Anxiety, not anger, induces inflammatory activity: An avoidance/approach model of immune system activation.

PubMed

Moons, Wesley G; Shields, Grant S

2015-08-01

Psychological stressors reliably trigger systemic inflammatory activity as indexed by levels of proinflammatory cytokines. This experiment demonstrates that one's specific emotional reaction to a stressor may be a significant determinant of whether an inflammatory reaction occurs in response to that stressor. Based on extant correlational evidence and theory, a causal approach was used to determine whether an avoidant emotion (anxiety) triggers more inflammatory activity than an approach emotion (anger). In an experimental design (N = 40), a 3-way Emotion Condition × Time × Analyte interaction revealed that a writing-based anxiety induction, but not a writing-based anger induction, increased mean levels of interferon-γ (IFN- γ) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), but not interleukin-6 (IL-6) in oral mucous, F(2, 54) = 4.64, p = .01, ηp(²) = .15. Further, self-reported state anxiety predicted elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines, all ΔR(²) >.06, ps <.04, but self-reported state anger did not. These results constitute the first evidence to our knowledge that specific negative emotions can differentially cause inflammatory activity and support a theoretical model explaining these effects based on the avoidance or approach motivations associated with emotions. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Fear and anger have opposite effects on risk seeking in the gain frame.

PubMed

Habib, Marianne; Cassotti, Mathieu; Moutier, Sylvain; Houdé, Olivier; Borst, Grégoire

2015-01-01

Emotions strongly influence our decisions, particularly those made under risk. A classic example of the effect of emotion on decision making under risk is the "framing effect," which involves predictable shifts in preferences when the same problem is formulated in different ways. According to dual process theories, this bias could stem from an affective heuristic belonging to an intuitive type of reasoning. In this study, we examined whether specific incidental negative emotions (i.e., fear and anger) influence framing susceptibility and risk-taking identically. In each trial, participants received an initial amount of money, and pictures of angry or fearful faces were presented to them. Finally, participants chose between a sure option and a gamble option of equally expected value in a gain or loss frame. Risk-taking was modulated by emotional context: fear and anger influenced risk-taking specifically in the gain frame and had opposite effects. Fear increased risk-averse choices, whereas anger decreased risk-averse choices, leading to a suppression of the framing effect. These results confirm that emotions play a key role in framing susceptibility.

Comparing integral and incidental emotions: Testing insights from emotions as social information theory and attribution theory.

PubMed

Hillebrandt, Annika; Barclay, Laurie J

2017-05-01

Studies have indicated that observers can infer information about others' behavioral intentions from others' emotions and use this information in making their own decisions. Integrating emotions as social information (EASI) theory and attribution theory, we argue that the interpersonal effects of emotions are not only influenced by the type of discrete emotion (e.g., anger vs. happiness) but also by the target of the emotion (i.e., how the emotion relates to the situation). We compare the interpersonal effects of emotions that are integral (i.e., related to the situation) versus incidental (i.e., lacking a clear target in the situation) in a negotiation context. Results from 4 studies support our general argument that the target of an opponent's emotion influences the degree to which observers attribute the emotion to their own behavior. These attributions influence observers' inferences regarding the perceived threat of an impasse or cooperativeness of an opponent, which can motivate observers to strategically adjust their behavior. Specifically, emotion target influenced concessions for both anger and happiness (Study 1, N = 254), with perceived threat and cooperativeness mediating the effects of anger and happiness, respectively (Study 2, N = 280). Study 3 (N = 314) demonstrated the mediating role of attributions and moderating role of need for closure. Study 4 (N = 193) outlined how observers' need for cognitive closure influences how they attribute incidental anger. We discuss theoretical implications related to the social influence of emotions as well as practical implications related to the impact of personality on negotiators' biases and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Influence of gender in the recognition of basic facial expressions: A critical literature review

PubMed Central

Forni-Santos, Larissa; Osório, Flávia L

2015-01-01

AIM: To conduct a systematic literature review about the influence of gender on the recognition of facial expressions of six basic emotions. METHODS: We made a systematic search with the search terms (face OR facial) AND (processing OR recognition OR perception) AND (emotional OR emotion) AND (gender or sex) in PubMed, PsycINFO, LILACS, and SciELO electronic databases for articles assessing outcomes related to response accuracy and latency and emotional intensity. The articles selection was performed according to parameters set by COCHRANE. The reference lists of the articles found through the database search were checked for additional references of interest. RESULTS: In respect to accuracy, women tend to perform better than men when all emotions are considered as a set. Regarding specific emotions, there seems to be no gender-related differences in the recognition of happiness, whereas results are quite heterogeneous in respect to the remaining emotions, especially sadness, anger, and disgust. Fewer articles dealt with the parameters of response latency and emotional intensity, which hinders the generalization of their findings, especially in the face of their methodological differences. CONCLUSION: The analysis of the studies conducted to date do not allow for definite conclusions concerning the role of the observer’s gender in the recognition of facial emotion, mostly because of the absence of standardized methods of investigation. PMID:26425447

Electrocortical reactivity to negative and positive facial expressions in individuals with a family history of major depression.

PubMed

Watters, Anna J; Harris, Anthony W F; Williams, Leanne M

2018-05-21

Facial expressions signaling threat and mood-congruent loss have been used to probe abnormal neural reactivity in major depressive disorder (MDD) and may be implicated in genetic vulnerability to MDD. This study investigated electro-cortical reactivity to facial expressions 101 unaffected, adult first degree relatives of probands with MDD and non-relative controls (n = 101). We investigated event-related potentials (ERPs) to five facial expressions of basic emotion: fear, anger, disgust, sadness and happiness under both subliminal (masked) and conscious (unmasked) presentation conditions, and the source localization of group differences. In the conscious condition, controls showed a distinctly positive-going shift in responsive to negative versus happy faces, reflected in a greater positivity for the VPP frontally and the P300 parietally, and less negativity for the N200. By contrast, relatives showed less differentiation of emotions, reflected in less VPP and P300 positivity, particularly for anger and disgust, and which produced an enhanced N200 for sadness. These group differences were consistently source localized to the anterior cingulate cortex. The findings contribute new evidence for neural disruptions underlying the differentiation of salient emotions in familial risk for depression. These disruptions occur in the appraisal (∼200 ms post-stimulus) through to the context evaluation (∼300 ms+ post-stimulus) phases of of emotion processing, consistent with theories that risk for depression involves biased or attenuated processing of emotion. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Physiological responses induced by emotion-eliciting films.

PubMed

Fernández, Cristina; Pascual, Juan C; Soler, Joaquim; Elices, Matilde; Portella, Maria J; Fernández-Abascal, Enrique

2012-06-01

Emotion-eliciting films are commonly used to evoke subjective emotional responses in experimental settings. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether a set of film clips with discrete emotions were capable to elicit measurable objective physiological responses. The convergence between subjective and objective measures was evaluated. Finally, the effect of gender on emotional responses was investigated. A sample of 123 subjects participated in the study. Individuals were asked to view a set of emotional film clips capable to induce seven emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, amusement, tenderness and neutral state. Skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR) and subjective emotional responses were measured for each film clip. In comparison with neutral films, SCL was significantly increased after viewing fear films, and HR was also significantly incremented for anger and fear films. Physiological variations were associated with arousal measures indicating a convergence between subjective and objective reactions. Women appeared to display significantly greater SCL and HR responses for films inducing sadness. The findings suggest that physiological activation would be more easily induced by emotion-eliciting films that tap into emotions with higher subjective arousal such as anger and fear.

Cross-cultural decoding of positive and negative non-linguistic emotion vocalizations.

PubMed

Laukka, Petri; Elfenbein, Hillary Anger; Söder, Nela; Nordström, Henrik; Althoff, Jean; Chui, Wanda; Iraki, Frederick K; Rockstuhl, Thomas; Thingujam, Nutankumar S

2013-01-01

Which emotions are associated with universally recognized non-verbal signals?We address this issue by examining how reliably non-linguistic vocalizations (affect bursts) can convey emotions across cultures. Actors from India, Kenya, Singapore, and USA were instructed to produce vocalizations that would convey nine positive and nine negative emotions to listeners. The vocalizations were judged by Swedish listeners using a within-valence forced-choice procedure, where positive and negative emotions were judged in separate experiments. Results showed that listeners could recognize a wide range of positive and negative emotions with accuracy above chance. For positive emotions, we observed the highest recognition rates for relief, followed by lust, interest, serenity and positive surprise, with affection and pride receiving the lowest recognition rates. Anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and negative surprise received the highest recognition rates for negative emotions, with the lowest rates observed for guilt and shame. By way of summary, results showed that the voice can reveal both basic emotions and several positive emotions other than happiness across cultures, but self-conscious emotions such as guilt, pride, and shame seem not to be well recognized from non-linguistic vocalizations.

Integrating Dimensional and Discrete Theories of Emotions: A New Set of Anger- and Fear-Eliciting Stimuli for Children.

PubMed

Scaini, Simona; Rancoita, Paola M V; Martoni, Riccardo M; Omero, Micol; Ogliari, Anna; Brombin, Chiara

2017-01-01

The selection of appropriate stimuli for inducing specific emotional states has become one of the most challenging topics in psychological research. In the literature there is a lack of affective picture database specifically suited to investigate emotional response in children. Here the authors present the methodology that led us to create a new database (called Anger- and Fear-Eliciting Stimuli for Children) of affective stimuli inducing experiences of 3 target emotions (neutral, anger, and fear) to use in experimental session involving children. A total of 84 children were asked to (a) indicate the perceived emotion and its intensity and (b) rate the three affective dimensions of the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Based on concordance between labeled and expected target emotion, the authors decided to select 15 stimuli to be included in Multivariate modeling techniques were applied to evaluate the association between expected target emotion and SAM ratings. The authors found that the hit rate for the neutral pictures was good (greater than 81%), for fear-eliciting pictures it was greater than 64%, and for anger-eliciting pictures it was moderate (between 45% and 56%). The study results reveal also an age effect only in the arousal scale. However, the authors did not find significant gender-related differences in SAM ratings.

Preserved re-experience of discrete emotions: Amnesia and executive function.

PubMed

Stanciu, Marian Andrei; Rafal, Robert D; Turnbull, Oliver H

2018-02-07

Amnesic patients can re-experience emotions elicited by forgotten events, suggesting that brain systems for episodic and emotional memory are independent. However, the range of such emotional memories remains under-investigated (most studies employing just positive-negative emotion dyads), and executive function may also play a role in the re-experience of emotions. This is the first investigation of the intensity of the emotional re-experience of a range of discrete emotions (anger, fear, sadness, and happiness) for a group of amnesic patients. Twenty Korsakoff syndrome (KS) patients and 20 neurologically normal controls listened to four novel emotional vignettes selectively eliciting the four basic emotions. Emotional experience was measured using pen-and-paper Visual Analogue Mood Scales and episodic memory using verbal recollections. After 30 min, the recollection of stories was severely impaired for the patient group, but the emotional re-experience was no different from that of controls. Notably, there was no relationship between episodic recall and the intensity of the four emotions, such that even profoundly amnesic patients reported moderate levels of the target emotion. Exploratory analyses revealed negative correlations between the intensity of basic emotions and executive functions (e.g., cognitive flexibility and response inhibition) for controls but not patients. The results suggest that discrete emotions can be re-experienced independently of episodic memory, and that the re-experience of certain discrete emotions appears to be dampened by executive control. KS patients with absent or mild cognitive symptoms should benefit from emotion-regulation interventions aimed at reducing the recognized affective burden associated with their episodic memory deficit. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Moving to continuous facial expression space using the MPEG-4 facial definition parameter (FDP) set

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpouzis, Kostas; Tsapatsoulis, Nicolas; Kollias, Stefanos D.

2000-06-01

Research in facial expression has concluded that at least six emotions, conveyed by human faces, are universally associated with distinct expressions. Sadness, anger, joy, fear, disgust and surprise are categories of expressions that are recognizable across cultures. In this work we form a relation between the description of the universal expressions and the MPEG-4 Facial Definition Parameter Set (FDP). We also investigate the relation between the movement of basic FDPs and the parameters that describe emotion-related words according to some classical psychological studies. In particular Whissel suggested that emotions are points in a space, which seem to occupy two dimensions: activation and evaluation. We show that some of the MPEG-4 Facial Animation Parameters (FAPs), approximated by the motion of the corresponding FDPs, can be combined by means of a fuzzy rule system to estimate the activation parameter. In this way variations of the six archetypal emotions can be achieved. Moreover, Plutchik concluded that emotion terms are unevenly distributed through the space defined by dimensions like Whissel's; instead they tend to form an approximately circular pattern, called 'emotion wheel,' modeled using an angular measure. The 'emotion wheel' can be defined as a reference for creating intermediate expressions from the universal ones, by interpolating the movement of dominant FDP points between neighboring basic expressions. By exploiting the relation between the movement of the basic FDP point and the activation and angular parameters we can model more emotions than the primary ones and achieve efficient recognition in video sequences.

Social cognition and aggression in methamphetamine dependence with and without a history of psychosis.

PubMed

Uhlmann, Anne; Ipser, Jonathan C; Wilson, Don; Stein, Dan J

2018-04-01

In substance use and psychotic disorders, socially problematic behaviours, such as high aggression may, in part, be explained by deficits in social cognition skills, like the detection of emotions or intentions in others. The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of social cognition impairment and its association with aggression in individuals with methamphetamine (MA) dependence, methamphetamine-associated psychosis (MAP), and healthy controls (CTRL). A total of 20 MAP participants, 21 MA-dependent participants without psychosis, and 21 CTRL participants performed a facial morphing emotion recognition task (ERT) across four basic emotions (anger, fear, happiness and sadness) and the reading the mind in the eyes task (RMET), and completed the aggression questionnaire. Both MA-dependent groups showed impairment in social cognition in terms of lower RMET scores relative to CTRL participants (MA; p = .047; MAP: p < .001). Additionally, performance decrements were significantly greater in MAP (p = .040), compared to MA-dependent participants. While deficits in recognising emotional expressions were restricted to anger in the MA group (p = .020), a generalized impairment across all four emotions was observed in MAP (all p ≤ .001). Additionally, both patient groups demonstrated higher levels of aggression than CTRLs, yet no association was found with social cognition. This study supported the notion of deficits in recognising facial emotional expressions and inferring mental states of others in MA dependence, with additional impairments in MAP. Failure to detect an association between social cognitive impairment and aggressive behaviour may implicate independent disturbances of the two phenomena in MA dependence.

Neural correlates of emotional action control in anger-prone women with borderline personality disorder.

PubMed

Bertsch, Katja; Roelofs, Karin; Roch, Paul Jonathan; Ma, Bo; Hensel, Saskia; Herpertz, Sabine C; Volman, Inge

2018-05-01

Difficulty in controlling emotional impulses is a crucial component of borderline personality disorder (BPD) that often leads to destructive, impulsive behaviours against others. In line with recent findings in aggressive individuals, deficits in prefrontal amygdala coupling during emotional action control may account for these symptoms. To study the neurobiological correlates of altered emotional action control in individuals with BPD, we asked medication-free, anger-prone, female patients with BPD and age- and intelligence-matched healthy women to take part in an approach-avoidance task while lying in an MRI scanner. The task required controlling fast behavioural tendencies to approach happy and avoid angry faces. Additionally, before the task we collected saliva testosterone and self-reported information on tendencies to act out anger and correlated this with behavioural and functional MRI (fMRI) data. We included 30 patients and 28 controls in our analysis. Patients with BPD reported increased tendencies to act out anger and were faster in approaching than avoiding angry faces than with healthy women, suggesting deficits in emotional action control in women with BPD. On a neural level, controlling fast emotional action tendencies was associated with enhanced activation in the antero- and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex across groups. Healthy women showed a negative coupling between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right amygdala, whereas this was absent in patients with BPD. Specificity of results to BPD and sex differences remain unknown owing to the lack of clinical control groups and male participants. The results indicate reduced lateral prefrontal-amygdala communication during emotional action control in anger-prone women with BPD. The findings provide a possible neural mechanism underlying difficulties with controlling emotional impulses in patients with BPD.

Affective and cognitive validation of thoughts: An appraisal perspective on anger, disgust, surprise, and awe.

PubMed

Briñol, Pablo; Petty, Richard E; Stavraki, Maria; Lamprinakos, Grigorios; Wagner, Benjamin; Díaz, Darío

2018-05-01

Anger, disgust, surprise, and awe are multifaceted emotions. Both anger and disgust are associated with feeling unpleasant as well as experiencing a sense of confidence, whereas surprise and awe tend to be more pleasant emotions that are associated with doubt. Most prior work has examined how appraisals (confidence, pleasantness) lead people to experience different emotions or to experience different levels of intensity within the same emotion. Instead, the current research focused on the consequences (rather the antecedents) of appraisals of emotion, and it focuses specifically on the consequences for thought usage rather than the consequences for generating many or few thoughts. We show that when these four emotions are induced following thought generation, thoughts can be used either more or less with each emotion depending on whether the pleasantness/unpleasantness or confidence/doubt appraisal is made salient. In five experiments, it was predicted and found that anger and disgust following thought generation led to more thought use than surprise and awe when a confidence appraisal for the emotion was encouraged, but led to less thought use than surprise and awe when a pleasantness appraisal was made salient. The current studies are the first to reveal that different appraisals can lead to different (even opposite) outcomes on thought usage within the same experimental design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotions in Speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sobin, Christina Ann

This study was undertaken to examine the acoustical encoding of fear, anger, sadness and joy in voice. Twenty emotion-induction stories were read by 31 subjects who produced a total of 620 emotion-laden standard sentences. Subjects rated their emotions, and the acoustics of each sentence were analyzed. Twelve judges were employed to rate the emotion of each sentence, and their ratings were used to select "prototype" sentences for each emotion. The acoustical characteristics distinguishing each emotion were calculated. Rate, amount of time spent talking and pausing, and number of gaps, in addition to amplitude, frequency and their variances, uniquely distinguished among fear, anger, sadness and joy. Results of past studies were confirmed, and additional differentiation among the emotions was achieved. Judges' confusion matrices were analyzed in order to assess the relationship of detectability and discriminability to acoustic characteristics. It was found that the detectability and/or discriminability of fear, anger, sadness and joy, to varying degrees, paralleled the amount of acoustical overlap among them. A further test of the acoustic findings suggested that mean values of acoustic variables may accurately describe the acoustic cues to sadness and joy, but perhaps not to fear and anger. Thus, additional acoustic parameters, such as the temporal pattern of the acoustic measures, may inform raters. It is suggested that time-based profiles of amplitude and frequency may offer a plausible addition to future research endeavors.

Can an angry woman get ahead? Status conferral, gender, and expression of emotion in the workplace.

PubMed

Brescoll, Victoria L; Uhlmann, Eric Luis

2008-03-01

Three studies examined the relationships among anger, gender, and status conferral. As in prior research, men who expressed anger in a professional context were conferred higher status than men who expressed sadness. However, both male and female evaluators conferred lower status on angry female professionals than on angry male professionals. This was the case regardless of the actual occupational rank of the target, such that both a female trainee and a female CEO were given lower status if they expressed anger than if they did not. Whereas women's emotional reactions were attributed to internal characteristics (e.g., "she is an angry person,"she is out of control"), men's emotional reactions were attributed to external circumstances. Providing an external attribution for the target person's anger eliminated the gender bias. Theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed.

Emotional reactivity assessment of healthy elderly with an emotion-induction procedure.

PubMed

Fajula, Claire; Bonin-Guillaume, Sylvie; Jouve, Elisabeth; Blin, Olivier

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: No emotion-induction procedure is clearly recommended to assess the emotional reactivity in the elderly. This study aimed to validate an emotional reactivity procedure in healthy old patients. Nineteen healthy elders (age range: 66-91 years old) were compared with 19 education- and sex-matched young adults (age range: 20-33 years old) using a cross-sectional design. The main outcome measure was the evaluation of emotional reactivity to commercial film excerpts used as stimuli (joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, or neutral state) according to Philippot's procedure and using a 5-point questionnaire assessing 10 emotion dimensions (Differential Emotions Scale, DES). In the elderly sample, targeted emotions of fear, disgust, anger, and sadness were significantly induced compared with the baseline status. The global emotional reactivity to each film showed that the elderly subjects rated the DES in the same manner as the young adults, but with significantly higher global intensity for the excerpts inducing fear, anger, disgust, and sadness. The Philippot procedure is accurate for studying emotional reactivity in healthy elderly. The simplicity and rapidity of this procedure makes it suitable for emotion studies in different elderly populations.

Symmetrical and asymmetrical outcomes of leader anger expression: A qualitative study of army personnel

PubMed Central

Lindebaum, Dirk; Jordan, Peter J; Morris, Lucy

2016-01-01

Recent studies have highlighted the utility of anger at work, suggesting that anger can have positive outcomes. Using the Dual Threshold Model, we assess the positive and negative consequences of anger expressions at work and focus on the conditions under which expressions of anger crossing the impropriety threshold are perceived as productive or counterproductive by observers or targets of that anger. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a phenomenological study (n = 20) to probe the lived experiences of followers (as observers and targets) associated with anger expressions by military leaders. The nature of task (e.g. the display rules prescribed for combat situations) emerged as one condition under which the crossing of the impropriety threshold leads to positive outcomes of anger expressions. Our data reveal tensions between emotional display rules and emotional display norms in the military, thereby fostering paradoxical attitudes toward anger expression and its consequences among followers. Within this paradoxical space, anger expressions have both positive (asymmetrical) and negative (symmetrical) consequences. We place our findings in the context of the Dual Threshold Model, discuss the practical implications of our research and offer avenues for future studies. PMID:26900171

Symmetrical and asymmetrical outcomes of leader anger expression: A qualitative study of army personnel.

PubMed

Lindebaum, Dirk; Jordan, Peter J; Morris, Lucy

2016-02-01

Recent studies have highlighted the utility of anger at work, suggesting that anger can have positive outcomes. Using the Dual Threshold Model, we assess the positive and negative consequences of anger expressions at work and focus on the conditions under which expressions of anger crossing the impropriety threshold are perceived as productive or counterproductive by observers or targets of that anger. To explore this phenomenon, we conducted a phenomenological study ( n = 20) to probe the lived experiences of followers (as observers and targets) associated with anger expressions by military leaders. The nature of task (e.g. the display rules prescribed for combat situations) emerged as one condition under which the crossing of the impropriety threshold leads to positive outcomes of anger expressions. Our data reveal tensions between emotional display rules and emotional display norms in the military, thereby fostering paradoxical attitudes toward anger expression and its consequences among followers. Within this paradoxical space, anger expressions have both positive (asymmetrical) and negative (symmetrical) consequences. We place our findings in the context of the Dual Threshold Model, discuss the practical implications of our research and offer avenues for future studies.

Emotional display rules in Palestine: Ingroup/outgroup membership, status of interaction partner and gender.

PubMed

Flicker, Sharon M; Ayoub, Haneen J S; Guynn, Melissa J

2017-05-05

This study investigates emotional display rules within the Palestinian context, focusing on the seven basic emotions in a sample of 150 college students from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Overall, participants felt that it was more appropriate to express positive emotions (happiness and surprise) than negative powerful (anger, contempt and disgust) or negative powerless (fear and sadness) emotions. They also perceived it to be more appropriate to express positive and negative powerless emotions to ingroup than outgroup members and to express negative powerful emotions to lower status compared to higher status individuals. Gender differences were also found: men endorsed greater expression of both powerful and, surprisingly, powerless emotions than women, but only when interacting with outgroup members. Results are interpreted in terms of the cultural values of individualism-collectivism and power distance as well as cultural differences in emotional expressiveness between collectivistic societies. This study is one of the first to examine emotional display rules in an Arab population, thus expanding our current knowledge base. © 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.

Physical Activity and Anger or Emotional Upset as Triggers of Acute Myocardial Infarction: The INTERHEART Study.

PubMed

Smyth, Andrew; O'Donnell, Martin; Lamelas, Pablo; Teo, Koon; Rangarajan, Sumathy; Yusuf, Salim

2016-10-11

Physical exertion, anger, and emotional upset are reported to trigger acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In the INTERHEART study, we explored the triggering association of acute physical activity and anger or emotional upset with AMI to quantify the importance of these potential triggers in a large, international population. INTERHEART was a case-control study of first AMI in 52 countries. In this analysis, we included only cases of AMI and used a case-crossover approach to estimate odds ratios for AMI occurring within 1 hour of triggers. Of 12 461 cases of AMI 13.6% (n=1650) engaged in physical activity and 14.4% (n=1752) were angry or emotionally upset in the case period (1 hour before symptom onset). Physical activity in the case period was associated with increased odds of AMI (odds ratio, 2.31; 99% confidence interval [CI], 1.96-2.72) with a population-attributable risk of 7.7% (99% CI, 6.3-8.8). Anger or emotional upset in the case period was associated with an increased odds of AMI (odds ratio, 2.44; 99% CI, 2.06-2.89) with a population-attributable risk of 8.5% (99% CI, 7.0-9.6). There was no effect modification by geographical region, prior cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular risk factor burden, cardiovascular prevention medications, or time of day or day of onset of AMI. Both physical activity and anger or emotional upset in the case period were associated with a further increase in the odds of AMI (odds ratio, 3.05; 99% CI, 2.29-4.07; P for interaction <0.001). Physical exertion and anger or emotional upset are triggers associated with first AMI in all regions of the world, in men and women, and in all age groups, with no significant effect modifiers. © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

Materazzi effect and the strategic use of anger in competitive interactions.

PubMed

Gneezy, Uri; Imas, Alex

2014-01-28

We propose that individuals use anger strategically in interactions. We first show that in some environments angering people makes them more effective in competitions, whereas in others, anger makes them less effective. We then show that individuals anticipate these effects and strategically use the option to anger their opponents. In particular, they are more likely to anger their opponents when anger negatively affects the opponents' performances. This finding suggests people understand the effects of emotions on behavior and exploit them to their advantage.

Attitudes toward emotions.

PubMed

Harmon-Jones, Eddie; Harmon-Jones, Cindy; Amodio, David M; Gable, Philip A

2011-12-01

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).

Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion

PubMed Central

Zorab, Emma; Navaratnam, Nakulan; Engels, Miriam; Mallorquí-Bagué, Núria; Minati, Ludovico; Dowell, Nicholas G.; Brosschot, Jos F.; Thayer, Julian F.; Critchley, Hugo D.

2016-01-01

Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: the induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity. PMID:26253525

Multiresolution analysis (discrete wavelet transform) through Daubechies family for emotion recognition in speech.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campo, D.; Quintero, O. L.; Bastidas, M.

2016-04-01

We propose a study of the mathematical properties of voice as an audio signal. This work includes signals in which the channel conditions are not ideal for emotion recognition. Multiresolution analysis- discrete wavelet transform - was performed through the use of Daubechies Wavelet Family (Db1-Haar, Db6, Db8, Db10) allowing the decomposition of the initial audio signal into sets of coefficients on which a set of features was extracted and analyzed statistically in order to differentiate emotional states. ANNs proved to be a system that allows an appropriate classification of such states. This study shows that the extracted features using wavelet decomposition are enough to analyze and extract emotional content in audio signals presenting a high accuracy rate in classification of emotional states without the need to use other kinds of classical frequency-time features. Accordingly, this paper seeks to characterize mathematically the six basic emotions in humans: boredom, disgust, happiness, anxiety, anger and sadness, also included the neutrality, for a total of seven states to identify.

Attachment linked predictors of women's emotional and cognitive responses to infant distress.

PubMed

Leerkes, Esther M; Siepak, Kathryn J

2006-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among women's emotional and cognitive responses to infant fear and anger and to identify attachment linked predictors of these responses. Four hundred and forty Caucasian and African American undergraduate college women viewed video clips of two crying infants, one displaying anger and the other displaying fear. They identified what the infants were feeling, made causal attributions about the cause of crying, rated their own emotional reactions to the crying infants, and reported on the extent to which their parents met their emotional needs in childhood and their current adult attachment patterns. Emotional and cognitive responses to infant fear and anger were interrelated. Consistent with prediction, a history of parental emotional rejection and adult attachment anxiety and avoidance correlated negatively with accurate identification of emotions and positively with negative attributions, amusement, and neutral responses to infant distress. Adult attachment security moderated the effects of early parental rejection on emotional and cognitive responses to infant distress, and these results varied based on race and parent gender. Results are discussed from an attachment theory perspective.

Teaching This Class Drives Me Nuts! - Examining the Person and Context Specificity of Teacher Emotions

PubMed Central

Pekrun, Reinhard; Goetz, Thomas

2015-01-01

Teachers’ emotions are critically important for the quality of classroom instruction, and they are key components of teachers’ psychological well-being. Past research has focused on individual differences between teachers, whereas within-teacher variation across contexts has rarely been considered. As such, the present research addresses the long-standing yet unresolved person-situation debate pertaining to the emotional experiences of teachers. In two diary studies (N = 135, 70% female, and N = 85, 28% female), we examined the role of person, academic subject, and group of students for teacher emotions; focusing on three of the most salient emotions found in teachers: enjoyment, anger, and anxiety. Findings from multi-level analysis confirmed the person specificity of enjoyment, anger, and, in particular, anxiety. In addition, underscoring the existence of within-teacher variability, findings supported that teachers’ emotions considerably varied depending on the subject and group of students taught, particularly so for enjoyment and anger. Implications of the person and context specificity of teacher emotions are discussed in relation to assessments and intervention programs aiming to improve teachers’ emotional lives in the classroom. PMID:26053623

Introducing a multivariate model for predicting driving performance: the role of driving anger and personal characteristics.

PubMed

Roidl, Ernst; Siebert, Felix Wilhelm; Oehl, Michael; Höger, Rainer

2013-12-01

Maladaptive driving is an important source of self-inflicted accidents and this driving style could include high speeds, speeding violations, and poor lateral control of the vehicle. The literature suggests that certain groups of drivers, such as novice drivers, males, highly motivated drivers, and those who frequently experience anger in traffic, tend to exhibit more maladaptive driving patterns compared to other drivers. Remarkably, no coherent framework is currently available to describe the relationships and distinct influences of these factors. We conducted two studies with the aim of creating a multivariate model that combines the aforementioned factors, describes their relationships, and predicts driving performance more precisely. The studies employed different techniques to elicit emotion and different tracks designed to explore the driving behaviors of participants in potentially anger-provoking situations. Study 1 induced emotions with short film clips. Study 2 confronted the participants with potentially anger-inducing traffic situations during the simulated drive. In both studies, participants who experienced high levels of anger drove faster and exhibited greater longitudinal and lateral acceleration. Furthermore, multiple linear regressions and path-models revealed that highly motivated male drivers displayed the same behavior independent of their emotional state. The results indicate that anger and specific risk characteristics lead to maladaptive changes in important driving parameters and that drivers with these specific risk factors are prone to experience more anger while driving, which further worsens their driving performance. Driver trainings and anger management courses will profit from these findings because they help to improve the validity of assessments of anger related driving behavior. © 2013.

Parental Psychological Control and Adolescent Adjustment: The Role of Adolescent Emotion Regulation

PubMed Central

Cui, Lixian; Morris, Amanda Sheffield; Criss, Michael M.; Houltberg, Benjamin J.; Silk, Jennifer S.

2014-01-01

SYNOPSIS Objective This study investigated associations between parental psychological control and aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms among adolescents from predominantly disadvantaged backgrounds. The indirect effects of psychological control on adolescent adjustment through adolescent emotion regulation (anger and sadness regulation) were examined as well as the moderating effects of adolescent emotion regulation. Design 206 adolescents (ages 10–18) reported on parental psychological control and their own depressive symptoms, and parents and adolescents reported on adolescent emotion regulation and aggressive behavior. Indirect effect models were tested using structural equation modeling; moderating effects were tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Results The associations between parental psychological control and adolescent aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms were indirect through adolescents’ anger regulation. Moderation analyses indicated that the association between parental psychological control and adolescent depressive symptoms was stronger among adolescents with poor sadness regulation and the association between psychological control and aggressive behavior was stronger among older adolescents with poor anger regulation. Conclusions Psychological control is negatively associated with adolescent adjustment, particularly among adolescents who have difficulty regulating emotions. Emotion regulation is one mechanism through which psychological control is linked to adolescent adjustment, particularly anger dysregulation, and this pattern holds for both younger and older adolescents and for both boys and girls. PMID:25057264

Intact anger recognition in depression despite aberrant visual facial information usage.

PubMed

Clark, Cameron M; Chiu, Carina G; Diaz, Ruth L; Goghari, Vina M

2014-08-01

Previous literature has indicated abnormalities in facial emotion recognition abilities, as well as deficits in basic visual processes in major depression. However, the literature is unclear on a number of important factors including whether or not these abnormalities represent deficient or enhanced emotion recognition abilities compared to control populations, and the degree to which basic visual deficits might impact this process. The present study investigated emotion recognition abilities for angry versus neutral facial expressions in a sample of undergraduate students with Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) scores indicative of moderate depression (i.e., ≥20), compared to matched low-BDI-II score (i.e., ≤2) controls via the Bubbles Facial Emotion Perception Task. Results indicated unimpaired behavioural performance in discriminating angry from neutral expressions in the high depressive symptoms group relative to the minimal depressive symptoms group, despite evidence of an abnormal pattern of visual facial information usage. The generalizability of the current findings is limited by the highly structured nature of the facial emotion recognition task used, as well as the use of an analog sample undergraduates scoring high in self-rated symptoms of depression rather than a clinical sample. Our findings suggest that basic visual processes are involved in emotion recognition abnormalities in depression, demonstrating consistency with the emotion recognition literature in other psychopathologies (e.g., schizophrenia, autism, social anxiety). Future research should seek to replicate these findings in clinical populations with major depression, and assess the association between aberrant face gaze behaviours and symptom severity and social functioning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural relativity in perceiving emotion from vocalizations.

PubMed

Gendron, Maria; Roberson, Debi; van der Vyver, Jacoba Marieta; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2014-04-01

A central question in the study of human behavior is whether certain emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, are recognized in nonverbal cues across cultures. We predicted and found that in a concept-free experimental task, participants from an isolated cultural context (the Himba ethnic group from northwestern Namibia) did not freely label Western vocalizations with expected emotion terms. Responses indicate that Himba participants perceived more basic affective properties of valence (positivity or negativity) and to some extent arousal (high or low activation). In a second, concept-embedded task, we manipulated whether the target and foil on a given trial matched in both valence and arousal, neither valence nor arousal, valence only, or arousal only. Himba participants achieved above-chance accuracy only when foils differed from targets in valence only. Our results indicate that the voice can reliably convey affective meaning across cultures, but that perceptions of emotion from the voice are culturally variable.

Anger, Hostility, Internalizing Negative Emotions, and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: A Meta-Analytic Review

PubMed Central

Birkley, Erica; Eckhardt, Christopher I.

2015-01-01

Prior reviews have identified elevated trait anger as a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Given that 10 years have passed since the last comprehensive review of this literature, we provide an updated meta-analytic review examining associations among anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and IPV for male and female perpetrators. One hundred and five effect sizes from 64 independent samples (61 studies) were included for analysis. IPV perpetration was moderately associated with the constructs of anger, hostility, and internalizing negative emotions. This association appeared stronger for those who perpetrated moderate to severe IPV compared to those who perpetrated low to moderate IPV, and did not vary across perpetrator sex, measurement method, relationship type, or perpetrator population. Implications and limitations of findings were reviewed in the context of theoretical models of IPV, and future directions for empirical and clinical endeavors were proposed. PMID:25752947

Anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and intimate partner violence perpetration: A meta-analytic review.

PubMed

Birkley, Erica L; Eckhardt, Christopher I

2015-04-01

Prior reviews have identified elevated trait anger as a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Given that 10 years have passed since the last comprehensive review of this literature, we provide an updated meta-analytic review examining associations among anger, hostility, internalizing negative emotions, and IPV for male and female perpetrators. One hundred and five effect sizes from 64 independent samples (61 studies) were included for analysis. IPV perpetration was moderately associated with the constructs of anger, hostility, and internalizing negative emotions. This association appeared stronger for those who perpetrated moderate to severe IPV compared to those who perpetrated low to moderate IPV, and did not vary across perpetrator sex, measurement method, relationship type, or perpetrator population. Implications and limitations of findings were reviewed in the context of theoretical models of IPV, and future directions for empirical and clinical endeavors were proposed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fear and Anger Responses to Local News Coverage of Alcohol-Related Crimes, Accidents, and Injuries: Explaining News Effects on Policy Support Using a Representative Sample of Messages and People

PubMed Central

Goodall, Catherine E.; Slater, Michael D.; Myers, Teresa A.

2013-01-01

An experiment investigated emotional reactions to news on policy support. Stimuli were selected from a nationally representative sample of local crime/accident news, and a nationally representative online panel of U.S. adults. Stories were manipulated to mention or not mention the role of alcohol. Anger elicited by stories increased blame of individuals, whereas fear increased consideration of contributing societal factors. Mention of alcohol increased likelihood of different emotional responses dominating--greater anger when alcohol was mentioned and greater fear when not mentioned. Such emotions influence policy support: enforcement of existing laws controlling individual behavior in addition to new laws when anger predominated, and, indirectly, support for new laws changing social context in which alcohol is promoted and sold when fear predominated. PMID:23729838

Depression and aggressive behaviour in adolescents offenders and non-offenders.

PubMed

Llorca Mestre, Anna; Malonda, Elisabeth; Samper-García, Paula

2017-05-01

Adolescent behaviour is strongly linked to emotions. The aim of this study is 1) analyse the differences between young offenders and non-offenders in emotional instability, anger, aggressive behaviour, anxiety and depression, and also the differences according to sex; and 2) compare the relation between emotional instability and anxiety, depression and aggressive behaviour mediated or modulated by anger in both groups. participants are 440 adolescents, both male and female (15-18 years old). 220 were young offenders from four different correctional centres of the Valencia Region. The other 220 participants were randomly chosen from ten public and private schools in the Valencia metropolitan area. In the Schools the instruments were applied collectively in the classroom, with a 50 minutes maximum duration. In the Youth Detention Centre the application was carried out in small groups. The structural equation model (SEM) carried out on each group, young offenders and non-offenders show a relation between the assessed variables. Emotional instability appears strongly related with anger in both samples, but anger just predicts depression and aggressive behaviour in the offender population. The results give relevant information for treatment and prevention of aggressive behaviour and delinquency in teenagers through emotional regulation.

Emotional expressions in antismoking television advertisements: consequences of anger and sadness framing on pathways to persuasion.

PubMed

Kim, Sunny Jung; Niederdeppe, Jeff

2014-01-01

The authors conducted an experiment among U.S. college students (N = 115) to assess the effects of anger- and sadness-framed television antismoking advertisements on viewers' emotional response, impressions of the speaker, source likability, and empathy toward the speaker. The study was based on the fundamental assumptions of discrete emotions and was operationalized using the principles of universal facial expressions. The authors also constructed a path model to investigate how these variables predicted one's attitude toward smoking, attitude toward the tobacco industry, and intentions to smoke. Supporting study hypotheses, the anger-framed message increased the perceived dominance of the speaker relative to the other conditions. Perceived dominance, in turn, was negatively associated with smoking attitudes and, indirectly, smoking intentions. Contrary to study hypotheses, the sadness-framed message did not increase sad emotional responses, source likability, or empathy relative to the no emotion-framed message. The anger-framed message unexpectedly appeared to decrease these outcomes. Empathy and source likability were associated with positive attitudes toward the tobacco industry, but these attitudes did not predict intentions to smoke. The authors discuss the implications of these findings.

One angry woman: Anger expression increases influence for men, but decreases influence for women, during group deliberation.

PubMed

Salerno, Jessica M; Peter-Hagene, Liana C

2015-12-01

We investigated whether expressing anger increases social influence for men, but diminishes social influence for women, during group deliberation. In a deception paradigm, participants believed they were engaged in a computer-mediated mock jury deliberation about a murder case. In actuality, the interaction was scripted. The script included 5 other mock jurors who provided verdicts and comments in support of the verdicts; 4 agreed with the participant and 1 was a "holdout" dissenter. Holdouts expressed their opinions with no emotion, anger, or fear and had either male or female names. Holdouts exerted no influence on participants' opinions when they expressed no emotion or fear. Participants' confidence in their own verdict dropped significantly, however, after male holdouts expressed anger. Yet, anger expression undermined female holdouts: Participants became significantly more confident in their original verdicts after female holdouts expressed anger-even though they were expressing the exact same opinion and emotion as the male holdouts. Mediation analyses revealed that participants drew different inferences from male versus female anger, which created a gender gap in influence during group deliberation. The current study has implications for group decisions in general, and jury deliberations in particular, by suggesting that expressing anger might lead men to gain influence, but women to lose influence over others (even when making identical arguments). These diverging consequences might result in women potentially having less influence on societally important decisions than men, such as jury verdicts. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Encoding conditions affect recognition of vocally expressed emotions across cultures.

PubMed

Jürgens, Rebecca; Drolet, Matthis; Pirow, Ralph; Scheiner, Elisabeth; Fischer, Julia

2013-01-01

Although the expression of emotions in humans is considered to be largely universal, cultural effects contribute to both emotion expression and recognition. To disentangle the interplay between these factors, play-acted and authentic (non-instructed) vocal expressions of emotions were used, on the assumption that cultural effects may contribute differentially to the recognition of staged and spontaneous emotions. Speech tokens depicting four emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear) were obtained from German radio archives and re-enacted by professional actors, and presented to 120 participants from Germany, Romania, and Indonesia. Participants in all three countries were poor at distinguishing between play-acted and spontaneous emotional utterances (58.73% correct on average with only marginal cultural differences). Nevertheless, authenticity influenced emotion recognition: across cultures, anger was recognized more accurately when play-acted (z = 15.06, p < 0.001) and sadness when authentic (z = 6.63, p < 0.001), replicating previous findings from German populations. German subjects revealed a slight advantage in recognizing emotions, indicating a moderate in-group advantage. There was no difference between Romanian and Indonesian subjects in the overall emotion recognition. Differential cultural effects became particularly apparent in terms of differential biases in emotion attribution. While all participants labeled play-acted expressions as anger more frequently than expected, German participants exhibited a further bias toward choosing anger for spontaneous stimuli. In contrast to the German sample, Romanian and Indonesian participants were biased toward choosing sadness. These results support the view that emotion recognition rests on a complex interaction of human universals and cultural specificities. Whether and in which way the observed biases are linked to cultural differences in self-construal remains an issue for further investigation.

The Politics and Regulation of Anger in Urban China.

PubMed

Yang, Jie

2016-03-01

Negative emotions such as anger, and community responses to their expression are culturally and politically conditioned, including by dominant medical discourse on anger's somatic and psychic effects. In this article I examine local genres of anger expression in Beijing, China, particularly among marginalized workers, and address culturally specific responses to them. Through majie (rant), xiangpi ren (silenced rage), and nande hutu (muddledness as a more difficult kind of smartness), workers strategically employ anger to seek redress for injustices and legitimate their moral indignation while challenging official psychotherapeutic interventions. Those who seek to regulate anger, mostly psychosocial workers acting as arm's-length agents of the state, use mixed methods that draw on Western psychotherapy and indigenous psychological resources to frame, medicalize or appease workers' anger in the name of health and social stability. I demonstrate how the two processes--anger expression and responses to it--create tensions and result in an ambiguous and multivalent social terrain which Chinese subjects must negotiate and which the state attempts to govern. I argue that the ambivalence and multi-valence of anger expressions and state-sponsored reactions to them render this emotion both subversive vis-à-vis power and subject to manipulations that maintain social order.

Neuromodulator and Emotion Biomarker for Stress Induced Mental Disorders.

PubMed

Gu, Simeng; Wang, Wei; Wang, Fushun; Huang, Jason H

2016-01-01

Affective disorders are a leading cause of disabilities worldwide, and the etiology of these many affective disorders such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder is due to hormone changes, which includes hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in the peripheral nervous system and neuromodulators in the central nervous system. Consistent with pharmacological studies indicating that medical treatment acts by increasing the concentration of catecholamine, the locus coeruleus (LC)/norepinephrine (NE) system is regarded as a critical part of the central "stress circuitry," whose major function is to induce "fight or flight" behavior and fear and anger emotion. Despite the intensive studies, there is still controversy about NE with fear and anger. For example, the rats with LC ablation were more reluctant to leave a familiar place and took longer to consume the food pellets in an unfamiliar place (neophobia, i.e., fear in response to novelty). The reason for this discrepancy might be that NE is not only for flight (fear), but also for fight (anger). Here, we try to review recent literatures about NE with stress induced emotions and their relations with mental disorders. We propose that stress induced NE release can induce both fear and anger. "Adrenaline rush or norepinephrine rush" and fear and anger emotion might act as biomarkers for mental disorders.

Neuromodulator and Emotion Biomarker for Stress Induced Mental Disorders

PubMed Central

Gu, Simeng; Wang, Wei; Huang, Jason H.

2016-01-01

Affective disorders are a leading cause of disabilities worldwide, and the etiology of these many affective disorders such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder is due to hormone changes, which includes hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis in the peripheral nervous system and neuromodulators in the central nervous system. Consistent with pharmacological studies indicating that medical treatment acts by increasing the concentration of catecholamine, the locus coeruleus (LC)/norepinephrine (NE) system is regarded as a critical part of the central “stress circuitry,” whose major function is to induce “fight or flight” behavior and fear and anger emotion. Despite the intensive studies, there is still controversy about NE with fear and anger. For example, the rats with LC ablation were more reluctant to leave a familiar place and took longer to consume the food pellets in an unfamiliar place (neophobia, i.e., fear in response to novelty). The reason for this discrepancy might be that NE is not only for flight (fear), but also for fight (anger). Here, we try to review recent literatures about NE with stress induced emotions and their relations with mental disorders. We propose that stress induced NE release can induce both fear and anger. “Adrenaline rush or norepinephrine rush” and fear and anger emotion might act as biomarkers for mental disorders. PMID:27051536

Afternoon cortisol provides a link between self-regulated anger and peer-reported aggression in typically developing children in the school context.

PubMed

Oberle, Eva; McLachlan, Kaitlyn; Catherine, Nicole L A; Brain, Ursula; Schonert-Reichl, Kimberly A; Weinberg, Joanne; Oberlander, Tim F

2017-09-01

Aggression jeopardizes positive development in children and predicts social and academic maladjustment in school. The present study determined the relationships among anger dysregulation (a marker of emotion regulation), cortisol activity (a biomarker of stress), and peer-nominated aggression in typically developing children in their everyday classroom setting (N = 151, Mean age = 10.86, SD =.74). Salivary cortisol was collected at 09:15, 11:45, and 14:45 hr across 4 consecutive days. Children provided self-reports of anger regulation; peers reported proactive and reactive aggressive behaviors. Hierarchical linear regression analyses, followed by a bootstrapping analysis identified basal afternoon cortisol as a significant mediator between anger regulation and peer-reported aggression. More dysregulated anger significantly predicted lower afternoon cortisol, which in turn predicted increased peer-reported aggression. These results align with previous research on links among hypocortisolism, emotional regulation, and behavior, and suggest a possible meditational pathway between emotion and behavior regulation via decreased afternoon cortisol levels. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Anger-related dysregulation as a factor linking childhood physical abuse and interparental violence to intimate partner violence experiences.

PubMed

Iverson, Katherine M; McLaughlin, Katie A; Adair, Kathryn C; Monson, Candice M

2014-01-01

Childhood family violence exposure is associated with increased risk for experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) in adulthood, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain inadequately understood. Difficulties with emotion regulation may be one factor that helps to explain this relationship. Childhood physical abuse and interparental violence, as well as subsequent IPV experiences, were assessed in a large sample of young adults (N = 670). Several indicators of anger-related dysregulation were also assessed. Structural equation modeling was used to create a latent variable of anger-related dysregulation, which was examined as a potential mediator of the associations between childhood family violence exposure and IPV. Childhood physical abuse and interparental violence were associated with greater physical, sexual, and emotional IPV victimization. Childhood physical abuse and interparental violence were also associated with anger-related dysregulation, which was positively associated with all three types of IPV experiences. Anger-related dysregulation fully mediated the association between witnessing interparental violence and physical IPV. Anger-related dysregulation partially mediated the association between witnessing interparental violence and psychological IPV and the associations of childhood physical abuse with all three forms of IPV. These associations were consistent across gender. Interventions aimed at reducing IPV risk among survivors of childhood family violence may benefit from including techniques to target anger-related emotion regulation skills.

Anger after Childbirth: An Overlooked Reaction to Postpartum Stressors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Jennifer E.; Lobel, Marci; DeLuca, Robyn Stein

2002-01-01

Other than postpartum depression, little is known about women's emotional responses to childbirth and subsequent stressors. Anger was explored on the basis of theory and evidence that it is a likely emotional response in this context. During their third trimester of pregnancy and approximately six weeks after delivery, 163 participants completed…

Pride, Pity, Anger, Guilt: Thought-Affect Sequences in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiner, Bernard

A set of prevalent emotions, including pity, anger, guilt, pride (self-esteem), gratitude, and resignation, shares a common characteristic, i.e., causal attributions appear to be sufficient antecedents for their elicitation. Research in the field of emotions has shown that the underlying properties or dimensions of attributions are the significant…

Parental Anger towards Children: Assessment Issues in Child Maltreatment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hecht, Debra B.; And Others

As any parent knows, anger towards children is a natural occurrence of parenting. Since it is important to identify and address some of the emotional issues that underlie child abuse, the role of anger in parenting and in child maltreatment is covered in this paper. An ecological analysis of parental anger is presented, with special emphasis on…

Materazzi effect and the strategic use of anger in competitive interactions

PubMed Central

Gneezy, Uri; Imas, Alex

2014-01-01

We propose that individuals use anger strategically in interactions. We first show that in some environments angering people makes them more effective in competitions, whereas in others, anger makes them less effective. We then show that individuals anticipate these effects and strategically use the option to anger their opponents. In particular, they are more likely to anger their opponents when anger negatively affects the opponents’ performances. This finding suggests people understand the effects of emotions on behavior and exploit them to their advantage. PMID:24474756

Job demands and driving anger: The roles of emotional exhaustion and work engagement.

PubMed

Li, Feng; Wang, Guangxi; Li, Yongjuan; Zhou, Ronggang

2017-01-01

This study aimed to examine the effects of both hindrance and challenge demands on driving anger within the framework of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. We collected self-reported data from 411 office workers driving to and from work each day in five cities in China. The results from a structural equation modeling analysis indicated that both hindrance and challenge demands were positively related to emotional exhaustion, which was in turn positively correlated with driving anger. Moreover, work engagement was positively correlated with driving anger. Implications of the present findings regarding both the JD-R model and driving safety research are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Relationship between self-evaluation of their emotions and subjective adaptation to school among junior high school students].

PubMed

Shimoda, Yoshiyuki; Ishizu, Kenichiro; Kashimura, Masami

2014-02-01

The effect of self-evaluation of emotions on subjective adaption to school was investigated among junior high school students (n = 217: 112 boys, 105 girls) who participated in a questionnaire survey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that for boys "Infringement and maladjustment" differed based on their self-evaluation of anger and anxiety. For girls, on the other hand, the self-evaluation of anger alleviated psychological stress, worsened the "Relationship with the teacher" and the "Relationship with the class", whereas self-evaluation of anxiety played a role in increasing psychological stress and deteriorating the "Relationship with the class." Furthermore, negatively evaluating either anger or anxiety heightened the "Motivation for learning" in girls. These results suggest that the evaluation of emotions is different in boys and girls and for different emotions.

Human Empathy, Personality and Experience Affect the Emotion Ratings of Dog and Human Facial Expressions.

PubMed

Kujala, Miiamaaria V; Somppi, Sanni; Jokela, Markus; Vainio, Outi; Parkkonen, Lauri

2017-01-01

Facial expressions are important for humans in communicating emotions to the conspecifics and enhancing interpersonal understanding. Many muscles producing facial expressions in humans are also found in domestic dogs, but little is known about how humans perceive dog facial expressions, and which psychological factors influence people's perceptions. Here, we asked 34 observers to rate the valence, arousal, and the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear, and anger/aggressiveness) from images of human and dog faces with Pleasant, Neutral and Threatening expressions. We investigated how the subjects' personality (the Big Five Inventory), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and experience of dog behavior affect the ratings of dog and human faces. Ratings of both species followed similar general patterns: human subjects classified dog facial expressions from pleasant to threatening very similarly to human facial expressions. Subjects with higher emotional empathy evaluated Threatening faces of both species as more negative in valence and higher in anger/aggressiveness. More empathetic subjects also rated the happiness of Pleasant humans but not dogs higher, and they were quicker in their valence judgments of Pleasant human, Threatening human and Threatening dog faces. Experience with dogs correlated positively with ratings of Pleasant and Neutral dog faces. Personality also had a minor effect on the ratings of Pleasant and Neutral faces in both species. The results imply that humans perceive human and dog facial expression in a similar manner, and the perception of both species is influenced by psychological factors of the evaluators. Especially empathy affects both the speed and intensity of rating dogs' emotional facial expressions.

Human Empathy, Personality and Experience Affect the Emotion Ratings of Dog and Human Facial Expressions

PubMed Central

Kujala, Miiamaaria V.; Somppi, Sanni; Jokela, Markus; Vainio, Outi; Parkkonen, Lauri

2017-01-01

Facial expressions are important for humans in communicating emotions to the conspecifics and enhancing interpersonal understanding. Many muscles producing facial expressions in humans are also found in domestic dogs, but little is known about how humans perceive dog facial expressions, and which psychological factors influence people’s perceptions. Here, we asked 34 observers to rate the valence, arousal, and the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear, and anger/aggressiveness) from images of human and dog faces with Pleasant, Neutral and Threatening expressions. We investigated how the subjects’ personality (the Big Five Inventory), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and experience of dog behavior affect the ratings of dog and human faces. Ratings of both species followed similar general patterns: human subjects classified dog facial expressions from pleasant to threatening very similarly to human facial expressions. Subjects with higher emotional empathy evaluated Threatening faces of both species as more negative in valence and higher in anger/aggressiveness. More empathetic subjects also rated the happiness of Pleasant humans but not dogs higher, and they were quicker in their valence judgments of Pleasant human, Threatening human and Threatening dog faces. Experience with dogs correlated positively with ratings of Pleasant and Neutral dog faces. Personality also had a minor effect on the ratings of Pleasant and Neutral faces in both species. The results imply that humans perceive human and dog facial expression in a similar manner, and the perception of both species is influenced by psychological factors of the evaluators. Especially empathy affects both the speed and intensity of rating dogs’ emotional facial expressions. PMID:28114335

Processing of Facial Emotion in Bipolar Depression and Euthymia.

PubMed

Robinson, Lucy J; Gray, John M; Burt, Mike; Ferrier, I Nicol; Gallagher, Peter

2015-10-01

Previous studies of facial emotion processing in bipolar disorder (BD) have reported conflicting findings. In independently conducted studies, we investigate facial emotion labeling in euthymic and depressed BD patients using tasks with static and dynamically morphed images of different emotions displayed at different intensities. Study 1 included 38 euthymic BD patients and 28 controls. Participants completed two tasks: labeling of static images of basic facial emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happy, sad) shown at different expression intensities; the Eyes Test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001), which involves recognition of complex emotions using only the eye region of the face. Study 2 included 53 depressed BD patients and 47 controls. Participants completed two tasks: labeling of "dynamic" facial expressions of the same five basic emotions; the Emotional Hexagon test (Young, Perret, Calder, Sprengelmeyer, & Ekman, 2002). There were no significant group differences on any measures of emotion perception/labeling, compared to controls. A significant group by intensity interaction was observed in both emotion labeling tasks (euthymia and depression), although this effect did not survive the addition of measures of executive function/psychomotor speed as covariates. Only 2.6-15.8% of euthymic patients and 7.8-13.7% of depressed patients scored below the 10th percentile of the controls for total emotion recognition accuracy. There was no evidence of specific deficits in facial emotion labeling in euthymic or depressed BD patients. Methodological variations-including mood state, sample size, and the cognitive demands of the tasks-may contribute significantly to the variability in findings between studies.

Noradrenaline effects on social behaviour, intergroup relations, and moral decisions.

PubMed

Terbeck, S; Savulescu, J; Chesterman, L P; Cowen, P J

2016-07-01

Recent research has begun to elucidate the neural basis of higher order social concepts, such as the mechanisms involved in intergroup relations, and moral judgments. Most theories have concentrated on higher order emotions, such as guilt, shame, or empathy, as core mechanisms. Accordingly, psychopharmacological and neurobiological studies have investigated the effects of manipulating serotonin or oxytocin activity on moral and social decisions and attitudes. However, recently it has been determined that changes in more basic emotions, such as fear and anger, might also have a significant role in social and moral cognition. This article summarizes psychopharmacological and fMRI research on the role of noradrenaline in higher order social cognition suggesting that indeed noradrenergic mediated affective changes might play key - and probably causal - role in certain social attitudes and moral judgments. Social judgments may also be directly influenced by numerous neurotransmitter manipulations but these effects could be mediated by modulation of basic emotions which appear to play an essential role in the formation of social concepts and moral behaviour. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Anger in brain and body: the neural and physiological perturbation of decision-making by emotion.

PubMed

Garfinkel, Sarah N; Zorab, Emma; Navaratnam, Nakulan; Engels, Miriam; Mallorquí-Bagué, Núria; Minati, Ludovico; Dowell, Nicholas G; Brosschot, Jos F; Thayer, Julian F; Critchley, Hugo D

2016-01-01

Emotion and cognition are dynamically coupled to bodily arousal: the induction of anger, even unconsciously, can reprioritise neural and physiological resources toward action states that bias cognitive processes. Here we examine behavioural, neural and bodily effects of covert anger processing and its influence on cognition, indexed by lexical decision-making. While recording beat-to-beat blood pressure, the words ANGER or RELAX were presented subliminally just prior to rapid word/non-word reaction-time judgements of letter-strings. Subliminal ANGER primes delayed the time taken to reach rapid lexical decisions, relative to RELAX primes. However, individuals with high trait anger were speeded up by subliminal anger primes. ANGER primes increased systolic blood pressure and the magnitude of this increase predicted reaction time prolongation. Within the brain, ANGER trials evoked an enhancement of activity within dorsal pons and an attenuation of activity within visual occipitotemporal and attentional parietal cortices. Activity within periaqueductal grey matter, occipital and parietal regions increased linearly with evoked blood pressure changes, indicating neural substrates through which covert anger impairs semantic decisions, putatively through its expression as visceral arousal. The behavioural and physiological impact of anger states compromises the efficiency of cognitive processing through action-ready changes in autonomic response that skew regional neural activity. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Perception of threat from emotions and its role in poor emotional expression within eating pathology.

PubMed

Ioannou, Korina; Fox, John R E

2009-01-01

Recent research has documented links between eating disorder (ED) symptomatology and emotional expression deficits. Relevant theoretical models have alluded to the functional role of disordered eating in alleviating affect that is felt to be otherwise unmanageable and threatening. Nevertheless, research examining ED individuals' perceptions of emotional states has been sparse, while empirical studies have predominantly focused on global conceptualizations of emotion, failing to address discrete affect states. The current study had three aims: (a) to determine the relation between ED symptomatology and emotional expression, in a sample of women with ED, in an attempt to confirm previous findings of an inverse relation; (b) to test the hypothesis that women with ED inhibit the expression of emotions perceived as threatening, by examining the relation between emotional expression and perceptions of threat from emotion, while partialling out the effects of depression; and (c) to determine whether, amongst women with ED, perceptions of threat from anger are uniquely associated with emotional inhibition, when the effects of depression and body dissatisfaction are controlled for. Results demonstrated that (a) emotional expression was negatively related with the three Eating Disorders Inventory-3 subscales (drive for thinness, bulimia and body dissatisfaction); (b) perceived threat from emotion, particularly anger, was negatively correlated with emotional expression, when depression was partialled out in the analysis; and (c) perceived threat from anger significantly and uniquely predicted emotional inhibition, over and above the effects of body dissatisfaction and depression, in a sample of women with ED symptomatology. It is suggested that anger may be perceived as particularly threatening amongst women with ED, and play a significant role in the emotional expression difficulties that this population experiences. The implications of the current findings are discussed in line with relevant theory and research, with particular reference to the new Schematic Propositional Analogical Associative Representation System for Eating Disorders (SPAARS-ED) model.

Beyond face value: does involuntary emotional anticipation shape the perception of dynamic facial expressions?

PubMed

Palumbo, Letizia; Jellema, Tjeerd

2013-01-01

Emotional facial expressions are immediate indicators of the affective dispositions of others. Recently it has been shown that early stages of social perception can already be influenced by (implicit) attributions made by the observer about the agent's mental state and intentions. In the current study possible mechanisms underpinning distortions in the perception of dynamic, ecologically-valid, facial expressions were explored. In four experiments we examined to what extent basic perceptual processes such as contrast/context effects, adaptation and representational momentum underpinned the perceptual distortions, and to what extent 'emotional anticipation', i.e. the involuntary anticipation of the other's emotional state of mind on the basis of the immediate perceptual history, might have played a role. Neutral facial expressions displayed at the end of short video-clips, in which an initial facial expression of joy or anger gradually morphed into a neutral expression, were misjudged as being slightly angry or slightly happy, respectively (Experiment 1). This response bias disappeared when the actor's identity changed in the final neutral expression (Experiment 2). Videos depicting neutral-to-joy-to-neutral and neutral-to-anger-to-neutral sequences again produced biases but in opposite direction (Experiment 3). The bias survived insertion of a 400 ms blank (Experiment 4). These results suggested that the perceptual distortions were not caused by any of the low-level perceptual mechanisms (adaptation, representational momentum and contrast effects). We speculate that especially when presented with dynamic, facial expressions, perceptual distortions occur that reflect 'emotional anticipation' (a low-level mindreading mechanism), which overrules low-level visual mechanisms. Underpinning neural mechanisms are discussed in relation to the current debate on action and emotion understanding.

Beyond Face Value: Does Involuntary Emotional Anticipation Shape the Perception of Dynamic Facial Expressions?

PubMed Central

Palumbo, Letizia; Jellema, Tjeerd

2013-01-01

Emotional facial expressions are immediate indicators of the affective dispositions of others. Recently it has been shown that early stages of social perception can already be influenced by (implicit) attributions made by the observer about the agent’s mental state and intentions. In the current study possible mechanisms underpinning distortions in the perception of dynamic, ecologically-valid, facial expressions were explored. In four experiments we examined to what extent basic perceptual processes such as contrast/context effects, adaptation and representational momentum underpinned the perceptual distortions, and to what extent ‘emotional anticipation’, i.e. the involuntary anticipation of the other’s emotional state of mind on the basis of the immediate perceptual history, might have played a role. Neutral facial expressions displayed at the end of short video-clips, in which an initial facial expression of joy or anger gradually morphed into a neutral expression, were misjudged as being slightly angry or slightly happy, respectively (Experiment 1). This response bias disappeared when the actor’s identity changed in the final neutral expression (Experiment 2). Videos depicting neutral-to-joy-to-neutral and neutral-to-anger-to-neutral sequences again produced biases but in opposite direction (Experiment 3). The bias survived insertion of a 400 ms blank (Experiment 4). These results suggested that the perceptual distortions were not caused by any of the low-level perceptual mechanisms (adaptation, representational momentum and contrast effects). We speculate that especially when presented with dynamic, facial expressions, perceptual distortions occur that reflect ‘emotional anticipation’ (a low-level mindreading mechanism), which overrules low-level visual mechanisms. Underpinning neural mechanisms are discussed in relation to the current debate on action and emotion understanding. PMID:23409112

Perceiving emotions in neutral faces: expression processing is biased by affective person knowledge.

PubMed

Suess, Franziska; Rabovsky, Milena; Abdel Rahman, Rasha

2015-04-01

According to a widely held view, basic emotions such as happiness or anger are reflected in facial expressions that are invariant and uniquely defined by specific facial muscle movements. Accordingly, expression perception should not be vulnerable to influences outside the face. Here, we test this assumption by manipulating the emotional valence of biographical knowledge associated with individual persons. Faces of well-known and initially unfamiliar persons displaying neutral expressions were associated with socially relevant negative, positive or comparatively neutral biographical information. The expressions of faces associated with negative information were classified as more negative than faces associated with neutral information. Event-related brain potential modulations in the early posterior negativity, a component taken to reflect early sensory processing of affective stimuli such as emotional facial expressions, suggest that negative affective knowledge can bias the perception of faces with neutral expressions toward subjectively displaying negative emotions. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

A qualitative exploration of the perception of emotions in anorexia nervosa: a basic emotion and developmental perspective.

PubMed

Fox, John R E

2009-01-01

Difficulties in emotional processing have long been regarded as a core difficulty within anorexia nervosa. Recent research and theory have started to highlight how eating disorder symptoms are often used to regulate painful emotions. However, there has been a lack of theoretical sophistication in how emotions have been considered within the eating disorders. This study was designed to use qualitative methodologies to address these inadequacies and provide a richer, more thorough account of emotions within anorexia nervosa. It used a grounded theory methodology to gather and analyse interview data from 11 participants who had a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, being seen at a regional eating disorder service (both inpatient and day patient). The results highlighted two main overarching themes regarding the perception and management of emotions within anorexia nervosa: (1) development of poor meta-emotional skills; and (2) perception and management of emotion in anorexia nervosa. These two categories comprised of a significant number of components from the qualitative analysis, including difficulties with anger, meta-emotional skills and poverty of emotional environments while growing up. Once the data had been collected and analysed, links were made between the findings of this research and the current literature base.

Cross-cultural decoding of positive and negative non-linguistic emotion vocalizations

PubMed Central

Laukka, Petri; Elfenbein, Hillary Anger; Söder, Nela; Nordström, Henrik; Althoff, Jean; Chui, Wanda; Iraki, Frederick K.; Rockstuhl, Thomas; Thingujam, Nutankumar S.

2013-01-01

Which emotions are associated with universally recognized non-verbal signals?We address this issue by examining how reliably non-linguistic vocalizations (affect bursts) can convey emotions across cultures. Actors from India, Kenya, Singapore, and USA were instructed to produce vocalizations that would convey nine positive and nine negative emotions to listeners. The vocalizations were judged by Swedish listeners using a within-valence forced-choice procedure, where positive and negative emotions were judged in separate experiments. Results showed that listeners could recognize a wide range of positive and negative emotions with accuracy above chance. For positive emotions, we observed the highest recognition rates for relief, followed by lust, interest, serenity and positive surprise, with affection and pride receiving the lowest recognition rates. Anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and negative surprise received the highest recognition rates for negative emotions, with the lowest rates observed for guilt and shame. By way of summary, results showed that the voice can reveal both basic emotions and several positive emotions other than happiness across cultures, but self-conscious emotions such as guilt, pride, and shame seem not to be well recognized from non-linguistic vocalizations. PMID:23914178

Extreme Metal Music and Anger Processing

PubMed Central

Sharman, Leah; Dingle, Genevieve A.

2015-01-01

The claim that listening to extreme music causes anger, and expressions of anger such as aggression and delinquency have yet to be substantiated using controlled experimental methods. In this study, 39 extreme music listeners aged 18–34 years were subjected to an anger induction, followed by random assignment to 10 min of listening to extreme music from their own playlist, or 10 min silence (control). Measures of emotion included heart rate and subjective ratings on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Results showed that ratings of PANAS hostility, irritability, and stress increased during the anger induction, and decreased after the music or silence. Heart rate increased during the anger induction and was sustained (not increased) in the music condition, and decreased in the silence condition. PANAS active and inspired ratings increased during music listening, an effect that was not seen in controls. The findings indicate that extreme music did not make angry participants angrier; rather, it appeared to match their physiological arousal and result in an increase in positive emotions. Listening to extreme music may represent a healthy way of processing anger for these listeners. PMID:26052277

Investigating the Role of Interpersonal Sensitivity, Anger, and Perfectionism in Social Anxiety.

PubMed

Mohammadian, Youkhabeh; Mahaki, Behzad; Dehghani, Mahmoud; Vahid, Mohammadkazem Atef; Lavasani, Fahimeh Fathali

2018-01-01

The investigation of personality characteristics and emotional experiences of the people suffering from anxiety disorders is one of the most important issues which are considered by researchers and clinicians. Perfectionism, sensitivity to interpersonal rejection, and anger are personality traits related to social anxiety. In social anxiety disorder, it has also been focused on anger as a personality characteristic and as an emotional condition. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the role of these variables in predicting social anxiety among a nonclinical group of Iranian students. In this cross-sectional study, 131 students completed the self-report version of Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self-Report version (LSAS-SR), Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS), Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM), and State and Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to examine the concurrent associations between perfectionism, interpersonal sensitivity and quality of emotional experience, and expression of anger with severity of self-report social anxiety. Greater levels of FMPS total were significantly associated with a greater level of LSAS total, fear, and avoidance of social and functional situations ( P = 0.022, P = 0.024, and P = 0.006). Moreover, a significant positive correlation between IPSM total ( P = 0.015) with fear and also between anger expression index ( P = 0.009) with avoidance subscale were found. In accordance to the previous researches, we found that perfectionism, interpersonal sensitivity, anger experience, and anger expression skills are related to social anxiety. How these personality traits are related to fear and avoidance of social situations and their concurrent effects on predicting social anxiety were discussed.

"Can You Hear Me Now, Ms. Monster?": Anger, "Thumos," and First-Year Composition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baecker, Diann

2007-01-01

There are not many English words for "anger." There's "wrath" and "ire," although no one uses "ire" anymore and hardly anyone "wrath." There's "frustration," "resentment," and "indignation," but they don't have the emotional intensity of "anger," a word that…

The effects of subjective loss of control on risk-taking behavior: the mediating role of anger

PubMed Central

Beisswingert, Birgit M.; Zhang, Keshun; Goetz, Thomas; Fang, Ping; Fischbacher, Urs

2015-01-01

Based on the Appraisal Tendency Framework on the antecedents and consequences of emotions two experimental studies examined the relationship between externally caused loss of control experiences and risk-taking behavior, as well as the assumed mediation of this relationship by the emotion anger. An experimental paradigm for inducing externally caused and consequently externally attributed loss of control which should lead to experiences of anger was developed and pretested in a Pilot Study. The relationship between loss of control experiences, anger, and risk-taking behavior was investigated using two separate student samples from Germany (N = 84, 54% female) and China (N = 125; 64% female). In line with our hypotheses, results showed that anger mediated the link between subjective loss of control experiences and increasing risk-taking behavior. Multiple group comparisons revealing similar patterns in both samples affirmed the results’ cross-cultural generalizability. These results implicate that anger makes people less risk averse in the process of economic decision making. PMID:26217244

The communication of "pure" group-based anger reduces tendencies toward intergroup conflict because it increases out-group empathy.

PubMed

de Vos, Bart; van Zomeren, Martijn; Gordijn, Ernestine H; Postmes, Tom

2013-08-01

The communication of group-based anger in intergroup conflict is often associated with destructive conflict behavior. However, we show that communicating group-based anger toward the out-group can evoke empathy and thus reduce intergroup conflict. This is because it stresses the value of maintaining a positive long-term intergroup relationship, thereby increasing understanding for the situation (in contrast to the communication of the closely related emotion of contempt). Three experiments demonstrate that the communication of group-based anger indeed reduces destructive conflict intentions compared with (a) a control condition (Experiments 1-2), (b) the communication of group-based contempt (Experiment 2), and (c) the communication of a combination of group-based anger and contempt (Experiments 2-3). Moreover, results from all three experiments reveal that empathy mediated the positive effect of communicating "pure" group-based anger. We discuss the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of communicating emotions in intergroup conflicts.

Pre-Service Classroom Teachers' Emotional Intelligence and Anger Expression Styles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin Baltaci, Hulya; Demir, Kamile

2012-01-01

In this study in which the pre-service classroom teachers' emotional intelligence and the ways of their anger expression styles were examined, correlational survey model was used. In total 342 students, 189 of whom were females and 153 of whom were males, constituted the participants of the research. The students are the first year and the senior…

A Service for Emotion Management: Turkish Version of the Adolescent Anger Rating Scale (AARS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aslan, A. Esra; Sevincler-Togan, Seyhan

2009-01-01

An individual's activities are closely related with his/her communication abilities. One's awareness of his feelings and needs and to what extend he can control such feelings are the key factors which effect communication abilities. Webster (1996) defines anger as, "a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed…

A Randomized Control Intervention Investigating the Effects of Acute Exercise on Emotional Regulation.

PubMed

Edwards, Meghan K; Rhodes, Ryan E; Loprinzi, Paul D

2017-09-01

Exercise may help to cope with hectic or demanding events after a stressful situation occurs. Limited research has evaluated whether exercise, prior to a stressor, helps to facilitate subsequent emotional regulation. This pilot study addresses this novel paradigm. We employed a randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of acute exercise on emotional regulation. Participants were randomly assigned to stretch (control group, N = 10), walk (N = 9), or jog (N = 8) for 15-minutes, after which they were exposed to a film clip intended to elicit a negative emotional response. Participants' emotions were monitored before and during exercise, as well as after the film clip. Emotional responses were evaluated using the Exercise Induced Feeling Inventory and Affective Circumplex Scale. A group x time splitplot interaction effect was significant for anger (p = .046) and anxiousness (p = .038). Follow-up analyses showed that only the stretching group (p = .048) had a significantly increased anger score from baseline to post-film clip, suggesting a protective emotional effect from walking and jogging. Exercise was effective in regulating anger and anxiousness after a stressful event. These findings provide evidence for potential preventive effects of exercise in facilitating emotional regulation.

The magnocellular visual pathway and facial emotion misattribution errors in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Bedwell, Jeffrey S; Chan, Chi C; Cohen, Ovad; Karbi, Yinnon; Shamir, Eyal; Rassovsky, Yuri

2013-07-01

Many individuals with schizophrenia show impairment in labeling the emotion depicted by faces, and tend to ascribe anger or fear to neutral expressions. Preliminary research has linked some of these difficulties to dysfunction in the magnocellular (M) visual pathway, which has direct projections to subcortical emotion processing regions. The current study attempted to clarify these relationships using a novel paradigm that included a red background. Diffuse red light is known to suppress the M-pathway in nonpsychiatric adults, and there is preliminary evidence that it may have the opposite (stimulating) effect in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSDs). Twenty-five individuals with SSDs were compared with 31 nonpsychiatric controls using a facial emotion identification task depicting happy, angry, fearful, and sad emotions on red, green, and gray backgrounds. There was a robust interaction of group by change in errors to the red (vs. green) background for misattributing fear expressions as depicting anger (p=.001, ή(2)=.18). Specifically, controls showed a significant decrease in this type of error with the red background (p=.003, d=0.77), while the SSD group tended to increase this type of error (p=.07, d=0.54). These findings suggest that the well-established M-pathway abnormalities in SSDs may contribute to the heightened misperception of other emotions such as anger, which in turn may cause social misperceptions in the environment and elicit symptoms such as paranoia and social withdrawal. As the ventral striatum plays a primary role in identifying anger and receives efferent input from the M-pathway, it may serve as the neuroanatomical substrate in the perception of anger. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mothers’ Emotional Reactions to Crying Pose Risk for Subsequent Attachment Insecurity

PubMed Central

Leerkes, Esther M.; Parade, Stephanie H.; Gudmundson, Jessica A.

2011-01-01

Links between maternal emotional reactions to crying (anger and anxiety) and infant attachment security were examined in 119 mother-infant dyads. Mothers rated the intensity of their emotional responses to videotapes of crying infants prenatally. Maternal sensitivity was observed during infant exposure to emotion eliciting tasks at six and 16 months postpartum and mothers’ self-reported on their responses to their infant’s negative emotions at 16 months. Infant attachment security was assessed using the Strange Situation at 16 months postpartum. Results indicated that observed sensitivity was associated with fewer avoidant and resistant behaviors and prenatal maternal anger and anxiety in response to infant crying predicted the developing attachment system independent of observed sensitivity, but in different ways. Maternal anxiety in response to crying was positively associated with resistant behaviors as a direct effect. Maternal anger in response to crying was associated with avoidant behaviors indirectly through mothers’ self-reported punitive and minimizing responses to infant distress at sixteen months. Theoretical, applied and methodological implications are discussed. PMID:21517171

Emotion recognition in mild cognitive impairment: relationship to psychosocial disability and caregiver burden.

PubMed

McCade, Donna; Savage, Greg; Guastella, Adam; Hickie, Ian B; Lewis, Simon J G; Naismith, Sharon L

2013-09-01

Impaired emotion recognition in dementia is associated with increased patient agitation, behavior management difficulties, and caregiver burden. Emerging evidence supports the presence of very early emotion recognition difficulties in mild cognitive impairment (MCI); however, the relationship between these impairments and psychosocial measures is not yet explored. Emotion recognition abilities of 27 patients with nonamnestic MCI (naMCI), 29 patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI), and 22 control participants were assessed. Self-report measures assessed patient functional disability, while informants rated the degree of burden they experienced. Difficulties in recognizing anger was evident in the amnestic subtype. Although both the patient groups reported greater social functioning disability, compared with the controls, a relationship between social dysfunction and anger recognition was evident only for patients with naMCI. A significant association was found between burden and anger recognition in patients with aMCI. Impaired emotion recognition abilities impact MCI subtypes differentially. Interventions targeted at patients with MCI, and caregivers are warranted.

Display rules for anger, sadness, and pain: it depends on who is watching.

PubMed

Zeman, J; Garber, J

1996-06-01

This study examined factors that may influence children's decisions to control or express their emotions including type of emotion (anger, sadness, physical pain), type of audience (mother, father, peer, alone), age, and sex. Children's reported use of display rules, reasons for their decisions, and reported method of expression were examined. Subjects were 32 boys and 32 girls in each of the first (M = 7.25 years old), third (M = 9.33 years old), and fifth grades (M = 11.75 years old). Regardless of the type of emotion experienced, children reported controlling their expression of emotion significantly more in the presence of peers than when they were with either their mother or father or when they were alone. Younger children reported expressing sadness and anger significantly more often than did older children, and girls were more likely than boys to report expressing sadness and pain. Children's primary reason for controlling their emotional expressions was the expectation of a negative interpersonal interaction following disclosure.

Emotional reactions to crime across cultures.

PubMed

Matsumoto, David; Hwang, Hyisung C

2015-10-01

Information about the emotions experienced by observers when they witness crimes would have important theoretical and practical implications, but to date no study has broadly assessed such emotional reactions. This study addressed this gap in the literature. Observers in seven countries viewed seven videos portraying actual crimes and rated their emotional reactions to each using 14 emotion scales. Observers reported significantly high levels of negative emotions including anger, contempt, disgust, fear and sadness-related emotions, and anger, contempt and disgust were the most salient emotions experienced by viewers across all countries. Witnesses also reported significantly high levels of positive emotions as well (compared to not feeling the emotion at all), which was unexpected. Country moderated the emotion ratings; post-hoc analyses indicated that masculine-oriented cultures reported less nervousness, surprise, excitement, fear and embarrassment than feminine cultures. © 2014 International Union of Psychological Science.

Anger Communication in Bicultural Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Novin, Sheida; Rieffe, Carolien

2012-01-01

Little is known about bicultural adolescents' emotional competence. The aim of the present study was to examine anger communication by comparing thirty-eight 16-year-old Moroccan-Dutch adolescents with 40 Dutch and 40 Moroccan peers using hypothetical anger-eliciting vignettes. Findings show that although Moroccan and Dutch adolescents were…

Effect of regulating anger and sadness on decision-making.

PubMed

Szasz, Paul Lucian; Hofmann, Stefan G; Heilman, Renata M; Curtiss, Joshua

2016-11-01

The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination for regulating anger and sadness on decision-making. Participants (N = 165) were asked to recall two autobiographical events in which they felt intense anger and sadness, respectively. Participants were then instructed to reappraise, accept, ruminate, or not use any strategies to regulate their feelings of anger and sadness. Following this manipulation, risk aversion, and decision-making strategies were measured using a computer-based measure of risk-taking and a simulated real-life decision-making task. Participants who were instructed to reappraise their emotions showed the least anger and sadness, the most adaptive decision-making strategies, but the least risk aversion as compared to the participants in the other conditions. These findings suggest that emotion regulation strategies of negative affective states have an immediate effect on decision-making and risk-taking behaviors.

On the Importance of Both Dimensional and Discrete Models of Emotion.

PubMed

Harmon-Jones, Eddie; Harmon-Jones, Cindy; Summerell, Elizabeth

2017-09-29

We review research on the structure and functions of emotions that has benefitted from a serious consideration of both discrete and dimensional perspectives on emotion. To illustrate this point, we review research that demonstrates: (1) how affective valence within discrete emotions differs as a function of individuals and situations, and how these differences relate to various functions; (2) that anger (and other emotional states) should be considered as a discrete emotion but there are dimensions around and within anger; (3) that similarities exist between approach-related positive and negative discrete emotions and they have unique motivational functions; (4) that discrete emotions and broad dimensions of emotions both have unique functions; and (5) evidence that a "new" discrete emotion with discrete functions exists within a broader emotion family. We hope that this consideration of both discrete and dimensional perspectives on emotion will assist in understanding the functions of emotions.

On the Importance of Both Dimensional and Discrete Models of Emotion

PubMed Central

Harmon-Jones, Eddie

2017-01-01

We review research on the structure and functions of emotions that has benefitted from a serious consideration of both discrete and dimensional perspectives on emotion. To illustrate this point, we review research that demonstrates: (1) how affective valence within discrete emotions differs as a function of individuals and situations, and how these differences relate to various functions; (2) that anger (and other emotional states) should be considered as a discrete emotion but there are dimensions around and within anger; (3) that similarities exist between approach-related positive and negative discrete emotions and they have unique motivational functions; (4) that discrete emotions and broad dimensions of emotions both have unique functions; and (5) evidence that a “new” discrete emotion with discrete functions exists within a broader emotion family. We hope that this consideration of both discrete and dimensional perspectives on emotion will assist in understanding the functions of emotions. PMID:28961185

A Comprehensive Examination of Delayed Emotional Recovery in Borderline Personality Disorder

PubMed Central

Fitzpatrick, Skye; Kuo, Janice R.

2014-01-01

Background and Objectives Despite growing attention to emotion processes in borderline personality disorder (BPD), little research has examined delayed emotional recovery (i.e., long-lasting emotions after the termination of an emotionally evocative stimulus) in this population. The extant data on delayed emotional recovery in BPD are limited by a lack of assessment across a range of indices and emotions. The present study addresses these gaps by comparing emotional recovery between individuals with BPD, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and healthy controls (HCs) using a multi-modal assessment approach. Methods Participants underwent fear, anger, and sadness inductions followed by a 5-minute “washout” phase wherein emotional recovery was assessed via self-report, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and skin conductance responses (SCR). Results After controlling for state dissociation, the BPD and SAD group exhibited decreases in RSA, while the HC group showed no changes in RSA after the anger induction only. Groups did not differ in rate of emotional recovery across self-report, RSA, or SCR after fear and sadness inductions. Limitations The present study is limited by a solely female and small sample, and the short time frame in which emotional recovery was assessed. Conclusions Findings indicate that individuals with BPD generally do not exhibit delayed emotional recovery, but may show decreases in parasympathetic activity during the recovery period after experiencing anger. However, this pattern may not be specific to this disorder. PMID:25482953

Anger, Sadness and Fear in Response to Breaking Crime and Accident News Stories: How Emotions Influence Support for Alcohol-Control Public Policies via Concern about Risks

PubMed Central

Solloway, Tyler; Slater, Michael D.; Chung, Adrienne; Goodall, Catherine

2015-01-01

Prior research shows that discrete emotions, notably anger and fear, can explain effects of news articles on health and alcohol-control policy support. This study advances prior work by coding expressed emotional responses to messages (as opposed to directly manipulated emotions or forced responses), incorporating and controlling for central thoughts, including sadness (a particularly relevant response to tragic stories), and examining concern’s mediating role between emotion and policy support. An experiment with a national online adult panel had participants read one of 60 violent crime or accident news stories, each manipulated to mention or withhold alcohol’s causal contribution. Multi-group structural equation models suggest that stories not mentioning alcohol had a direct effect on policy support via fear and central thoughts, unmediated by concern. When alcohol was mentioned, sadness and anger affects alcohol-control support through concern. Findings help confirm that emotional responses are key in determining news story effects on public support of health policies. PMID:26491487

Anger and shame as determinants of perceived competence.

PubMed

Hareli, Shlomo; Berkovitch, Nathan; Livnat, Liat; David, Shlomo

2013-01-01

Emotions are complex signals conveying a multitude of "messages" concomitantly. This idea is examined within the context of competence inferences drawn from the emotional expressions of another individual. In two studies, participants assuming the role of patients took part in a simulated medical consultation. They encountered a physician who had either a high or a standard professional status, and who responded with anger, shame, or emotional neutrality when asked to clarify the advice he dispensed. While a display of anger did not affect perceived competence, shame made the physician appear less competent. Three types of signals conveyed by the emotions were responsible for these effects: the physician's decisiveness and control over the situation, and the extent to which he felt professionally devalued by the patient's request, mediated the effects of the emotions on perceived competence. A priori information about the physician's professional status had little effect on the perception of competence. The research exemplifies the richness of information contained in emotions, and the complex way in which it allows observers to construe an impression of the expresser.

An evidence-based solution for minimizing stress and anger in nursing students.

PubMed

Shirey, Maria R

2007-12-01

Manifestations of stress and anger are becoming more evident in society. Anger, an emotion associated with stress, often affects other aspects of everyday life, including the workplace and the educational setting. Stress and irrational anger in nursing students presents a potential teaching-learning problem that requires innovative evidence-based solutions. In this article, anger in nursing students is discussed, and background information on the topic is provided. Common sources and manifestations of anger in nursing students are presented, and one evidence-based solution--mindfulness-based-stress reduction--is discussed.

Bodily moral disgust: what it is, how it is different from anger, and why it is an unreasoned emotion.

PubMed

Russell, Pascale Sophie; Giner-Sorolla, Roger

2013-03-01

With the recent upswing in research interest on the moral implications of disgust, there has been uncertainty about what kind of situations elicit moral disgust and whether disgust is a rational or irrational player in moral decision making. We first outline the benefits of distinguishing between bodily violations (e.g., sexual taboos, such as pedophilia and incest) and nonbodily violations (e.g., deception or betrayal) when examining moral disgust. We review findings from our lab and others' showing that, although many existing studies do not control for anger when studying disgust, disgust at nonbodily violations is often associated with anger and hard to separate from it, while bodily violations more consistently predict disgust independently of anger. Building on this distinction, we present further empirical evidence that moral disgust, in the context of bodily violations, is a relatively primitively appraised moral emotion compared to others such as anger, and also that it is less flexible and less prone to external justifications. Our review and results underscore the need to distinguish between the different consequences of moral emotions. © 2013 American Psychological Association

Mechanisms of attentional selection bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with high-trait anxiety.

PubMed

Xia, Luyao; Cui, Lixia; Zhang, Qin; Dong, Xiaofei; Shi, Guangyuan

2018-03-07

There are still some controversies that attentional bias to negative emotions in individuals with high-trait anxiety (HTA), as compare with those with low-trait anxiety (LTA), occurs in the engagement or disengagement facet of attentional selectivity and whether this attentional bias is affected by negative emotional types. In this study, we explored the different attentional selectivity mechanisms for threatening emotions of anger and disgust between individuals with HTA and LTA using the variant attentional-probe paradigm. The results showed that under the engagement condition, the HTA group's attentional bias index of the anger mood was negative and was significantly less than the disgusting mood (positive) and that the P1 was smaller with angry faces as compared with neutral faces, which was separate from the results of the disgusted faces, having a significant difference with neutral faces on P1 component. In the LTA group, under the disengagement condition, the attentional bias index of the disgusting mood was significantly bigger than the attentional bias index of the anger mood. Moreover, the P1 of the disgusted faces was significantly bigger than the P1 of the angry faces. The topographical maps were also made to reveal the different neural underpinnings. The results suggested that there were different mechanisms of selective attentional bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with HTA. HTA individuals were characterized by facilitated attentional engagement with angry faces and impaired attentional engagement with disgusted faces. LTA individuals had different neural underpinnings and had impaired attentional disengagement with disgusted faces.

Impaired emotional facial expression decoding in alcoholism is also present for emotional prosody and body postures.

PubMed

Maurage, Pierre; Campanella, Salvatore; Philippot, Pierre; Charest, Ian; Martin, Sophie; de Timary, Philippe

2009-01-01

Emotional facial expression (EFE) decoding impairment has been repeatedly reported in alcoholism (e.g. Philippot et al., 1999). Nevertheless, several questions are still under debate concerning this alteration, notably its generalization to other emotional stimuli and its variation according to the emotional valence of stimuli. Eighteen recently detoxified alcoholic subjects and 18 matched controls performed a decoding test consisting in emotional intensity ratings on various stimuli (faces, voices, body postures and written scenarios) depicting different emotions (anger, fear, happiness, neutral, sadness). Perceived threat and difficulty were also assessed for each stimulus. Alcoholic individuals had a preserved decoding performance for happiness stimuli, but alcoholism was associated with an underestimation of sadness and fear, and with a general overestimation of anger. More importantly, these decoding impairments were observed for faces, voices and postures but not for written scenarios. We observed for the first time a generalized emotional decoding impairment in alcoholism, as this impairment is present not only for faces but also for other visual (i.e. body postures) and auditory stimuli. Moreover, we report that this alteration (1) is mainly indexed by an overestimation of anger and (2) cannot be explained by an 'affect labelling' impairment, as the semantic comprehension of written emotional scenarios is preserved. Fundamental and clinical implications are discussed.

The voice conveys specific emotions: evidence from vocal burst displays.

PubMed

Simon-Thomas, Emiliana R; Keltner, Dacher J; Sauter, Disa; Sinicropi-Yao, Lara; Abramson, Anna

2009-12-01

Studies of emotion signaling inform claims about the taxonomic structure, evolutionary origins, and physiological correlates of emotions. Emotion vocalization research has tended to focus on a limited set of emotions: anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, and for the voice, also tenderness. Here, we examine how well brief vocal bursts can communicate 22 different emotions: 9 negative (Study 1) and 13 positive (Study 2), and whether prototypical vocal bursts convey emotions more reliably than heterogeneous vocal bursts (Study 3). Results show that vocal bursts communicate emotions like anger, fear, and sadness, as well as seldom-studied states like awe, compassion, interest, and embarrassment. Ancillary analyses reveal family-wise patterns of vocal burst expression. Errors in classification were more common within emotion families (e.g., 'self-conscious,' 'pro-social') than between emotion families. The three studies reported highlight the voice as a rich modality for emotion display that can inform fundamental constructs about emotion.

Anger, Violence, and Academic Performance: A Study of Troubled Minority Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleming, Jacqueline; Barner, Celious III; Hudson, Betsy; Rosignon-Carmouche, Lee A.

2000-01-01

Examined the relationship between anger, violence, and academic performance among troubled adolescents participating in a risk reduction intervention that stressed emotional confrontation and behavior change support. Surveys indicated that anger management was unrelated to violence or academic performance. Loss of control over time, concentration,…

Relationship Between Caregiving Burden and Anger Level in Primary Caregivers of Individuals With Chronic Mental Illness.

PubMed

Bademli, Kerime; Lök, Neslihan; Kılıc, Ayten Kaya

2017-06-01

The objective of this study was answer to the question: to what extent are the anger of the caregivers of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and their perceived level of burden are related? The study is a descriptive and correlational study. The information form prepared by the researchers which questions the socio-demographic information of the individuals along with the "Caregiving Burden Inventory" which examines the burden of the caregiver as well as "Trait Anger and Anger Expression Style Scale (TAAES)" which determines the anger levels of the caregivers were used. The caregiving burdens of the caregivers according to the score averages were determined as 11.88±9.78 for time and dependency burden, 11.93±8.46 for developmental burden, 8.47±6.63 for physical burden, 5.61±5.26 for social burden, 6.29±5.25 for emotional burden and the total burden score was determined as 44.19±26.75. According to the trait anger and anger expression style scale score averages; trait anger was determined as 15.12±5.95, anger expression as 9.70±3.43, anger-in as 15.22±4.02, anger control as 28.05±5.57 and anger total score average as 68.11±9.97. According to the results obtained from this study, caregivers of schizophrenia patients experience developmental, physical, social and emotional burdens in addition to trait anger. The caregivers of schizophrenia patients need knowledge and support in order to control the burden and the anger they experience during the caregiving process. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Who Deserves Help? Evolutionary Psychology, Social Emotions, and Public Opinion about Welfare

PubMed Central

Petersen, Michael Bang; Sznycer, Daniel; Cosmides, Leda; Tooby, John

2013-01-01

Evidence suggests that our foraging ancestors engaged in the small-scale equivalent of social insurance as an essential tool of survival and evolved a sophisticated psychology of social exchange (involving the social emotions of compassion and anger) to regulate mutual assistance. Here, we hypothesize that political support for modern welfare policies are shaped by these evolved mental programs. In particular, the compassionate motivation to share with needy nonfamily could not have evolved without defenses against opportunists inclined to take without contributing. Cognitively, such parasitic strategies can be identified by the intentional avoidance of productive effort. When detected, this pattern should trigger anger and down-regulate support for assistance. We tested predictions derived from these hypotheses in four studies in two cultures, showing that subjects’ perceptions of recipients’ effort to find work drive welfare opinions; that such perceptions (and not related perceptions) regulate compassion and anger (and not related emotions); that the effects of perceptions of recipients’ effort on opinions about welfare are mediated by anger and compassion, independently of political ideology; and that these emotions not only influence the content of welfare opinions but also how easily they are formed. PMID:23355755

Biased emotional recognition in depression: perception of emotions in music by depressed patients.

PubMed

Punkanen, Marko; Eerola, Tuomas; Erkkilä, Jaakko

2011-04-01

Depression is a highly prevalent mood disorder, that impairs a person's social skills and also their quality of life. Populations affected with depression also suffer from a higher mortality rate. Depression affects person's ability to recognize emotions. We designed a novel experiment to test the hypothesis that depressed patients show a judgment bias towards negative emotions. To investigate how depressed patients differ in their perception of emotions conveyed by musical examples, both healthy (n=30) and depressed (n=79) participants were presented with a set of 30 musical excerpts, representing one of five basic target emotions, and asked to rate each excerpt using five Likert scales that represented the amount of each one of those same emotions perceived in the example. Depressed patients showed moderate but consistent negative self-report biases both in the overall use of the scales and their particular application to certain target emotions, when compared to healthy controls. Also, the severity of the clinical state (depression, anxiety and alexithymia) had an effect on the self-report biases for both positive and negative emotion ratings, particularly depression and alexithymia. Only musical stimuli were used, and they were all clear examples of one of the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger and tenderness. No neutral or ambiguous excerpts were included. Depressed patients' negative emotional bias was demonstrated using musical stimuli. This suggests that the evaluation of emotional qualities in music could become a means to discriminate between depressed and non-depressed subjects. The practical implications of the present study relate both to diagnostic uses of such perceptual evaluations, as well as a better understanding of the emotional regulation strategies of the patients. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A phenomenological understanding of residents' emotional distress of living in an environmental justice community.

PubMed

Dory, Gabriela; Qiu, Zeyuan; Qiu, Christina M; Fu, Mei R; Ryan, Caitlin E

2017-12-01

Deteriorative environmental conditions in environmental justice (EJ) communities not only post direct health risks such as chronic illnesses, but also cause emotional distress such as anxiety, fear, and anger among residents, which may further exacerbate health risks. This study applies a descriptive phenomenological method to explore and describe the emotional experience of residents living in Ironbound, a known EJ community located in Newark, New Jersey. Twenty-three residents participated in the study. Four essential themes regarding the residents' emotional experiences were elicited from 43 interviews: (1) being worried about the harmful effects of the surrounding pollution; (2) being distressed by the known historical pollution sources; (3) being frustrated by the unheard voices and/or lack of responses; and (4) being angered by the ongoing pollution sources. Participants not only expressed their emotions of worry, distress, frustration, and anger in detail but also described reasons or situations that provoked such negative emotions. Such detailed depictions provide insights into potential meaningful strategies to improve residents' psychological wellbeing by alleviating negative emotions and meaningfully engaging residents in developing, implementing, and enforcing environmental laws, regulations, and policies to achieve EJ goals.

A phenomenological understanding of residents’ emotional distress of living in an environmental justice community

PubMed Central

Dory, Gabriela; Qiu, Zeyuan; Qiu, Christina M.; Fu, Mei R.; Ryan, Caitlin E.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Deteriorative environmental conditions in environmental justice (EJ) communities not only post direct health risks such as chronic illnesses, but also cause emotional distress such as anxiety, fear, and anger among residents, which may further exacerbate health risks. This study applies a descriptive phenomenological method to explore and describe the emotional experience of residents living in Ironbound, a known EJ community located in Newark, New Jersey. Twenty-three residents participated in the study. Four essential themes regarding the residents’ emotional experiences were elicited from 43 interviews: (1) being worried about the harmful effects of the surrounding pollution; (2) being distressed by the known historical pollution sources; (3) being frustrated by the unheard voices and/or lack of responses; and (4) being angered by the ongoing pollution sources. Participants not only expressed their emotions of worry, distress, frustration, and anger in detail but also described reasons or situations that provoked such negative emotions. Such detailed depictions provide insights into potential meaningful strategies to improve residents’ psychological wellbeing by alleviating negative emotions and meaningfully engaging residents in developing, implementing, and enforcing environmental laws, regulations, and policies to achieve EJ goals. PMID:28452606

On the validity of the autobiographical emotional memory task for emotion induction.

PubMed

Mills, Caitlin; D'Mello, Sidney

2014-01-01

The Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (AEMT), which involves recalling and writing about intense emotional experiences, is a widely used method to experimentally induce emotions. The validity of this method depends upon the extent to which it can induce specific desired emotions (intended emotions), while not inducing any other (incidental) emotions at different levels across one (or more) conditions. A review of recent studies that used this method indicated that most studies exclusively monitor post-writing ratings of the intended emotions, without assessing the possibility that the method may have differentially induced other incidental emotions as well. We investigated the extent of this issue by collecting both pre- and post-writing ratings of incidental emotions in addition to the intended emotions. Using methods largely adapted from previous studies, participants were assigned to write about a profound experience of anger or fear (Experiment 1) or happiness or sadness (Experiment 2). In line with previous research, results indicated that intended emotions (anger and fear) were successfully induced in the respective conditions in Experiment 1. However, disgust and sadness were also induced while writing about an angry experience compared to a fearful experience. Similarly, although happiness and sadness were induced in the appropriate conditions, Experiment 2 indicated that writing about a sad experience also induced disgust, fear, and anger, compared to writing about a happy experience. Possible resolutions to avoid the limitations of the AEMT to induce specific discrete emotions are discussed.

On the Validity of the Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task for Emotion Induction

PubMed Central

Mills, Caitlin; D'Mello, Sidney

2014-01-01

The Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (AEMT), which involves recalling and writing about intense emotional experiences, is a widely used method to experimentally induce emotions. The validity of this method depends upon the extent to which it can induce specific desired emotions (intended emotions), while not inducing any other (incidental) emotions at different levels across one (or more) conditions. A review of recent studies that used this method indicated that most studies exclusively monitor post-writing ratings of the intended emotions, without assessing the possibility that the method may have differentially induced other incidental emotions as well. We investigated the extent of this issue by collecting both pre- and post-writing ratings of incidental emotions in addition to the intended emotions. Using methods largely adapted from previous studies, participants were assigned to write about a profound experience of anger or fear (Experiment 1) or happiness or sadness (Experiment 2). In line with previous research, results indicated that intended emotions (anger and fear) were successfully induced in the respective conditions in Experiment 1. However, disgust and sadness were also induced while writing about an angry experience compared to a fearful experience. Similarly, although happiness and sadness were induced in the appropriate conditions, Experiment 2 indicated that writing about a sad experience also induced disgust, fear, and anger, compared to writing about a happy experience. Possible resolutions to avoid the limitations of the AEMT to induce specific discrete emotions are discussed. PMID:24776697

RESPONSE STYLE AND VULNERABILITY TO ANGER-INDUCED EATING IN OBESE ADULTS

PubMed Central

Appelhans, Bradley M.; Whited, Matthew C.; Schneider, Kristin L.; Oleski, Jessica; Pagoto, Sherry L.

2010-01-01

Emotional eating appears to contribute to weight gain, but the characteristics that make one vulnerable to emotional eating remain unclear. The present study examined whether two negative affect response styles, rumination and distraction, influenced palatable food intake following an anger mood induction in normal weight and obese adults. We hypothesized that higher rumination and lower distraction would be associated with greater vulnerability to anger-induced eating, particularly among obese individuals. Sixty-one participants (74% female, mean age = 34.6) underwent neutral and anger mood inductions in counterbalanced order. Directly following each mood induction, participants were provided with 2,400 kcals of highly palatable snack foods in the context of a laboratory taste test. Results revealed that distraction influenced energy intake following the mood induction for obese but not normal weight individuals. Obese participants who reported greater use of distraction strategies consumed fewer calories than those reporting less use of distraction strategies. These findings were independent of subjective hunger levels, individual differences in mood responses and trait anger, and other factors. Rumination did not account for changes in energy intake among obese or normal weight participants. Among obese individuals, the tendency to utilize fewer negative affect distraction strategies appears to be associated with vulnerability to eating in response to anger. Future research should determine whether coping skills training can reduce emotional eating tendencies. PMID:21184967

Anxiety and Anger Symptoms in Hwabyung Patients Improved More following 4 Weeks of the Emotional Freedom Technique Program Compared to the Progressive Muscle Relaxation Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Suh, Jin Woo; Chung, Sun Yong; Kim, Sang Young; Lee, Jung Hwan; Kim, Jong Woo

2015-01-01

Background. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is a meridian-based psychological therapy. The present clinical trial investigates the effectiveness of EFT as a new treatment option for Hwabyung (HB) patients experiencing anger and compares the efficacy to the Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), the conventional meditation technique. Methods. The EFT and progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) methods were performed on 27 HB patients, and their capacities to alleviate anxiety, anger, and emotional status were compared. After a 4-week program, a survey was conducted; patients then completed a self-training program for 4 weeks, followed by a second survey. Results. During the initial 4 weeks, the EFT group experienced a significant decrease in the HB symptom scale, anger state, and paranoia ideation (p < 0.05). Over the entire 9-week interval, there were significant decreases in the HB symptom scale, anxiety state, anger state, anger trait, somatization, anxiety, hostility, and so on in EFT group (p < 0.05). Conclusion. The EFT group showed improved psychological symptoms and physical symptoms greater than those observed in the PMR group. EFT more effectively alleviated HB symptoms compared to PMR. EFT group showed better maintenance during self-training, suggesting good model of self-control treatment in HB patients. PMID:26539218

Impact of anger on the health-related quality of life of multiple sclerosis patients.

PubMed

Labiano-Fontcuberta, Andrés; Mitchell, Alex J; Moreno-García, Sara; Puertas-Martín, Verónica; Benito-León, Julián

2015-04-01

There is evidence of the presence of a disturbed pattern of anger in multiple sclerosis (MS). Emotion changes, including anger, are thought to influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, although deleterious consequences of anger on physical health have been well reported, there are no studies that have analysed the effects of anger on the HRQoL in patients with MS. Our purpose was to assess the extent to which anger impacts on the HRQoL of a cohort of MS patients. One hundred and fifty-seven consecutive MS patients were enrolled in the study. Participants were administered affective trait measures (Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory) and anger measures (the Spanish adapted version of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2). HRQoL was quantified using the Functional Assessment of MS. Linear regression analyses revealed that even after controlling for socio-demographic and clinical variables, higher levels of anger expression-in (tendency to handle anger by keeping it inside) independently predicted worse overall HRQoL of MS patients (β = -0.15, p = 0.04). We further found that this relationship was moderated by gender, showing that anger expression-in is a more influential predictor of the HRQoL in women with MS. The present study provides evidence that anger negatively affects the HRQoL of MS patients. Our results may have implications for those involved in treating emotional complications of MS and especially regarding psychotherapeutic interventions to improve HRQoL of MS patients. © The Author(s), 2014.

Quantifying deficits in the perception of fear and anger in morphed facial expressions after bilateral amygdala damage.

PubMed

Graham, Reiko; Devinsky, Orrin; Labar, Kevin S

2007-01-07

Amygdala damage has been associated with impairments in perceiving facial expressions of fear. However, deficits in perceiving other emotions, such as anger, and deficits in perceiving emotion blends have not been definitively established. One possibility is that methods used to index expression perception are susceptible to heuristic use, which may obscure impairments. To examine this, we adapted a task used to examine categorical perception of morphed facial expressions [Etcoff, N. L., & Magee, J. J. (1992). Categorical perception of facial expressions. Cognition, 44(3), 227-240]. In one version of the task, expressions were categorized with unlimited time constraints. In the other, expressions were presented with limited exposure durations to tap more automatic aspects of processing. Three morph progressions were employed: neutral to anger, neutral to fear, and fear to anger. Both tasks were administered to a participant with bilateral amygdala damage (S.P.), age- and education-matched controls, and young controls. The second task was also administered to unilateral temporal lobectomy patients. In the first version, S.P. showed impairments relative to normal controls on the neutral-to-anger and fear-to-anger morphs, but not on the neutral-to-fear morph. However, reaction times suggested that speed-accuracy tradeoffs could account for results. In the second version, S.P. showed impairments on all morph types relative to all other subject groups. A third experiment showed that this deficit did not extend to the perception of morphed identities. These results imply that when heuristics use is discouraged on tasks utilizing subtle emotion transitions, deficits in the perception of anger and anger/fear blends, as well as fear, are evident with bilateral amygdala damage.

Lateralisation for processing facial emotion and anxiety: contrasting state, trait and social anxiety.

PubMed

Bourne, Victoria J; Vladeanu, Matei

2011-04-01

Recent neuropsychological studies have attempted to distinguish between different types of anxiety by contrasting patterns of brain organisation or activation; however, lateralisation for processing emotional stimuli has received relatively little attention. This study examines the relationship between strength of lateralisation for the processing of facial expressions of emotion and three measures of anxiety: state anxiety, trait anxiety and social anxiety. Across all six of the basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) the same patterns of association were found. Participants with high levels of trait anxiety were more strongly lateralised to the right hemisphere for processing facial emotion. In contrast, participants with high levels of self-reported physiological arousal in response to social anxiety were more weakly lateralised to the right hemisphere, or even lateralised to the left hemisphere, for the processing of facial emotion. There were also sex differences in these associations: the relationships were evident for males only. The finding of distinct patterns of lateralisation for trait anxiety and self-reported physiological arousal suggests different neural circuitry for trait and social anxiety. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Emotional Processing, Recognition, Empathy and Evoked Facial Expression in Eating Disorders: An Experimental Study to Map Deficits in Social Cognition

PubMed Central

Cardi, Valentina; Corfield, Freya; Leppanen, Jenni; Rhind, Charlotte; Deriziotis, Stephanie; Hadjimichalis, Alexandra; Hibbs, Rebecca; Micali, Nadia; Treasure, Janet

2015-01-01

Background Difficulties in social cognition have been identified in eating disorders (EDs), but the exact profile of these abnormalities is unclear. The aim of this study is to examine distinct processes of social-cognition in this patient group, including attentional processing and recognition, empathic reaction and evoked facial expression in response to discrete vignettes of others displaying positive (i.e. happiness) or negative (i.e. sadness and anger) emotions. Method One hundred and thirty-eight female participants were included in the study: 73 healthy controls (HCs) and 65 individuals with an ED (49 with Anorexia Nervosa and 16 with Bulimia Nervosa). Self-report and behavioural measures were used. Results Participants with EDs did not display specific abnormalities in emotional processing, recognition and empathic response to others’ basic discrete emotions. However, they had poorer facial expressivity and a tendency to turn away from emotional displays. Conclusion Treatments focusing on the development of non-verbal emotional communication skills might be of benefit for patients with EDs. PMID:26252220

The Unique and Shared Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Fear, Anger, and Sadness in Childhood

PubMed Central

Clifford, Sierra; Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn; Goldsmith, H. Hill

2015-01-01

This study examined the extent to which subordinate dimensions of negative emotionality were genetically and environmentally distinct in a sample of 1316 twins (51% female, 85.8% Caucasian, primarily middle class, mean age = 7.87 years, SD = .93), recruited from Wisconsin hospital birth records between 1989 and 2004. Cholesky, independent pathway, and common pathway models were fitted for mother-report, father-report, and in-home observation of temperament. Although findings support the use of negative emotionality, there were heritable aspects of anger and fear not explained by a common genetic factor, and shared environmental influences common to anger and sadness but not fear. Observed fear was independent from observed anger and sadness. Distinctions support specificity in measurement when considering implications for child development. PMID:26182850

Understanding attributional biases, emotions and self-esteem in 'poor me' paranoia: findings from an early psychosis sample.

PubMed

Fornells-Ambrojo, M; Garety, P A

2009-06-01

Trower and Chadwick's (1995) theory of two types of paranoia ('poor me' and 'bad me') provides a framework for understanding the seemingly contradictory evidence on persecutory delusions. Paranoia has been argued to defend against low self-esteem, but people with persecutory delusions report high levels of emotional distress and, in some instances, low self-worth. The current study investigates attributions and emotions in a sample of people with early psychosis who have persecutory delusions. 'Poor me' paranoia has been found to be more frequent than 'bad me' paranoia in the early stages of psychosis. Anger and a tendency to blame other people are hypothesized to characterize 'poor me' paranoia. The study had a cross-sectional design. Twenty individuals with early psychosis, 21 clinical controls with depression and 32 healthy volunteers completed a thorough assessment of emotions and attributions. The 'poor me' paranoia group showed higher levels of anger, anxiety and depression than the non-clinical control group. Self-esteem and guilt were however preserved. A tendency to blame others but not themselves was characteristic of the 'poor me' paranoia group whereas people in the clinical control group tended to self-blame for failures. Anger, but not self-esteem, was associated with an attributional bias characterized by blaming other people instead of oneself. In conclusion, anger, a previously overlooked emotion in the study of persecutory delusions, warrants further attention. The other-directed nature of this emotion highlights the potential role of interpersonal schemas in understanding paranoia.

Fear, anger, fruits, and veggies: interactive effects of emotion and message framing on health behavior.

PubMed

Gerend, Mary A; Maner, Jon K

2011-07-01

Message framing is a theoretically grounded health communication strategy designed to motivate action by emphasizing either the benefits of engaging in a particular behavior (gains) or the costs of failing to engage in the behavior (losses). This study investigated whether the effectiveness of a framed message depends on the emotional state of the message recipient. We examined effects of fear versus anger, emotions that frequently occur within the context of health decision-making. Undergraduate students (N = 133) were randomly assigned to complete a fear or anger induction task after which they read a gain- or loss-framed pamphlet promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. Fruit and vegetable intake (servings per day) subsequently was assessed over the following 2 weeks. As predicted, a significant frame by emotion interaction was observed, such that participants in the fear condition reported eating more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a loss-framed message than to a gain-framed message. In contrast, participants in the anger condition reported eating (marginally) more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a gain-framed message than to a loss-framed message. Greater increases in fruit and vegetable intake from baseline to follow-up were observed when the message frame was matched to the participant's emotional state. The effectiveness of framed health communications depends on the message recipient's current emotional state. Affective factors that are incidental to the behavior recommended in a health communication can affect the relative success of gain- and loss-framed appeals.

The link between negative emotions and eating disorder behaviour in patients with anorexia nervosa.

PubMed

Espeset, Ester M S; Gulliksen, Kjersti S; Nordbø, Ragnfrid H S; Skårderud, Finn; Holte, Arne

2012-11-01

Several theoretical models suggest that deficits in emotional regulation are central in the maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). Few studies have examined how patients view the relationship between negative affect and anorectic behaviour. We explored how patients with AN manage the aversive emotions sadness, anger, fear and disgust, and how they link these experiences to their eating disorder behaviours. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 women aged 19-39 years diagnosed with AN (DSM-IV). Interviews were analyzed using Grounded Theory methods. The participants tended to inhibit expression of sadness and anger in interpersonal situations and reported high levels of anger towards themselves, self-disgust and fear of becoming fat. Different emotions were managed by means of specific eating disorder behaviours. Sadness was particularly linked to body dissatisfaction and was managed through restrictive eating and purging. Anger was avoided by means of restrictive eating and purging and released through anorectic self-control, self-harm and exercising. Fear was linked to fear of fatness and was managed through restrictive eating, purging and body checking. Participants avoided the feeling of disgust by avoiding food and body focused situations. Treatment models of eating disorders highlight the significance of working with emotional acceptance and coping in this patient group. Knowledge about how patients understand the relationships between their negative emotions and their anorectic behaviour may be an important addition to treatment programmes for AN. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Neural mechanisms of anger regulation as a function of genetic risk for violence.

PubMed

Alia-Klein, Nelly; Goldstein, Rita Z; Tomasi, Dardo; Woicik, Patricia A; Moeller, Scott J; Williams, Benjamin; Craig, Ian W; Telang, Frank; Biegon, Anat; Wang, Gene-Jack; Fowler, Joanna S; Volkow, Nora D

2009-06-01

Genetic risk may predispose individuals to compromised anger regulation, potentially through modulation of brain responses to emotionally evocative stimuli. Emphatically expressed, the emotional word No can prohibit behavior through conditioning. In a recent functional magnetic resonance imaging study, the authors showed that healthy males attribute negative valence to No while showing a lateral orbitofrontal response that correlated with their self-reported anger control. Here, the authors examined the influence of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene (low vs. high transcription variants) on brain response to No and in relationship to trait anger reactivity and control. The orbitofrontal response did not differ as a function of the genotype. Instead, carriers of the low-MAOA genotype had reduced left middle frontal gyrus activation to No compared with the high variant. Furthermore, only for carriers of the up low-MAOA genotype, left amygdala and posterior thalamic activation to No increased with anger reactivity. Thus, vulnerability to aggression in carriers of the low-MAOA genotype is supported by decreased middle frontal response to No and the unique amygdala/thalamus association pattern in this group with anger reactivity but not anger control.

Neural Mechanisms of Anger Regulation as a Function of Genetic Risk for Violence

PubMed Central

Alia-Klein, Nelly; Goldstein, Rita Z.; Tomasi, Dardo; Woicik, Patricia A.; Moeller, Scott J.; Williams, Benjamin; Craig, Ian W.; Telang, Frank; Biegon, Anat; Wang, Gene-Jack; Fowler, Joanna S.; Volkow, Nora D.

2009-01-01

Genetic risk may predispose individuals to compromised anger regulation, potentially through modulation of brain responses to emotionally evocative stimuli. Emphatically expressed, the emotional word No can prohibit behavior through conditioning. In a recent functional magnetic resonance imaging study, the authors showed that healthy males attribute negative valence to No while showing a lateral orbitofrontal response that correlated with their self-reported anger control. Here, the authors examined the influence of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene (low vs. high transcription variants) on brain response to No and in relationship to trait anger reactivity and control. The orbitofrontal response did not differ as a function of the genotype. Instead, carriers of the low-MAOA genotype had reduced left middle frontal gyrus activation to No compared with the high variant. Furthermore, only for carriers of theup low-MAOA genotype, left amygdala and posterior thalamic activation to No increased with anger reactivity. Thus, vulnerability to aggression in carriers of the low-MAOA genotype is supported by decreased middle frontal response to No and the unique amygdala/thalamus association pattern in this group with anger reactivity but not anger control. PMID:19485616

On Assisting a Visual-Facial Affect Recognition System with Keyboard-Stroke Pattern Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stathopoulou, I.-O.; Alepis, E.; Tsihrintzis, G. A.; Virvou, M.

Towards realizing a multimodal affect recognition system, we are considering the advantages of assisting a visual-facial expression recognition system with keyboard-stroke pattern information. Our work is based on the assumption that the visual-facial and keyboard modalities are complementary to each other and that their combination can significantly improve the accuracy in affective user models. Specifically, we present and discuss the development and evaluation process of two corresponding affect recognition subsystems, with emphasis on the recognition of 6 basic emotional states, namely happiness, sadness, surprise, anger and disgust as well as the emotion-less state which we refer to as neutral. We find that emotion recognition by the visual-facial modality can be aided greatly by keyboard-stroke pattern information and the combination of the two modalities can lead to better results towards building a multimodal affect recognition system.

A functional architecture of the human brain: Emerging insights from the science of emotion

PubMed Central

Lindquist, Kristen A.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2012-01-01

The ‘faculty psychology’ approach to the mind, which attempts to explain mental function in terms of categories that reflect modular ‘faculties’, such as emotions, cognitions, and perceptions, has dominated research into the mind and its physical correlates. In this paper, we argue that brain organization does not respect the commonsense categories belonging to the faculty psychology approach. We review recent research from the science of emotion demonstrating that the human brain contains broadly distributed functional networks that can each be re-described as basic psychological operations that interact to produce a range of mental states, including, but not limited to, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, and so on. When compared to the faculty psychology approach, this ‘constructionist’ approach provides an alternative functional architecture to guide the design and interpretation of experiments in cognitive neuroscience. PMID:23036719

Emotional control, styles of coping with stress and acceptance of illness among patients suffering from chronic somatic diseases.

PubMed

Janowski, Konrad; Kurpas, Donata; Kusz, Joanna; Mroczek, Bożena; Jedynak, Tomasz

2014-02-01

The purpose of this study was to analyse the associations of emotional control with sociodemographic and clinical variables in a sample of patients with a range of chronic somatic diseases. The relationships between emotional control, coping styles and adjustment to the disease were investigated. The sample consisted of 300 patients with the mean age of 54.60 ± 17.57 years. Courtauld Emotional Control Scale was used to measure the patients' tendency to suppress negative emotions, Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations was used to measure coping styles and Acceptance of Illness Scale was applied to determine adjustment to the disease. Patients with neurological conditions showed significantly lower suppression of anger. Levels of emotional control were found to be related to gender, age and educational level but not to the place of residence. Task-oriented style of coping with stress correlated positively with suppression of depression and anxiety, whereas acceptance of illness correlated negatively with suppression of anger. Levels of emotional control are only weakly related to the type of diagnosis; however, some clinical samples may show lower suppression of anger. Suppression of negative emotions is weakly related to adjustment indicators such as certain coping styles and acceptance of illness. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Observed emotion frequency versus intensity as predictors of socioemotional maladjustment.

PubMed

Hernández, Maciel M; Eisenberg, Nancy; Valiente, Carlos; Spinrad, Tracy L; VanSchyndel, Sarah K; Diaz, Anjolii; Berger, Rebecca H; Silva, Kassondra M; Southworth, Jody; Piña, Armando A

2015-12-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether observed emotional frequency (the proportion of instances an emotion was observed) and intensity (the strength of an emotion when it was observed) uniquely predicted kindergartners' (N = 301) internalizing and externalizing problems. Analyses were tested in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework with data from multireporters (reports of problem behaviors from teachers and parents) and naturalistic observations of emotion in the fall semester. For observed positive emotion, both frequency and intensity negatively predicted parent- or teacher-reported internalizing symptoms. Anger frequency positively predicted parent- and teacher-reported externalizing symptoms, whereas anger intensity positively predicted parent- and teacher-reported externalizing and parent-reported internalizing symptoms. The findings support the importance of examining both aspects of emotion when predicting maladjustment. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Infants Show Distinct Negative Facial Expressions for Fear and Anger? Emotional Expression in 11-Month-Old European American, Chinese, and Japanese Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camras, Linda A.; Oster, Harriet; Bakeman, Roger; Meng, Zhaolan; Ujiie, Tatsuo; Campos, Joseph J.

2007-01-01

Do infants show distinct negative facial expressions for different negative emotions? To address this question, European American, Chinese, and Japanese 11-month-olds were videotaped during procedures designed to elicit mild anger or frustration and fear. Facial behavior was coded using Baby FACS, an anatomically based scoring system. Infants'…

Attributions for Pride, Anger, and Guilt among Incarcerated Minority Adolescents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hudley-Paul, Cynthia A.

Two studies investigate causal attributions among minority adolescents. The first investigates attributions for the emotions of anger, pride, and guilt among 26 incarcerated male adolescents. Relatively few causes are found for anger and guilt, and a larger variety of causes are cited for pride. A follow-up study then compares causal attributions…

In Control: Anger Management and the Development of Prosocial Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kellner, Millicent H.; Salvador, Diana S.; Bry, Brenna H.

This paper describes the preliminary results of a study of In Control, an anger management curriculum offered in the middle school of a therapeutic day school for children with severe emotional and behavioral disorders. Twenty students received the program, while 26 did not. Measures were number of anger logs students completed; institutional…

Infants' and Mothers' Vagal Reactivity in Response to Anger

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Ginger A.

2009-01-01

Background: Exposure to anger in the family is a risk factor for disruptive behavior disorders characterized by ineffective vagal regulation. Effects of anger on developing vagal regulation may be due to direct exposure or to effects on parents' regulation of emotion as parents support infants' regulation. Little is known about the impact of anger…

Depression and anger as risk factors underlying the relationship between maternal substance involvement and child abuse potential☆

PubMed Central

Hien, Denise; Cohen, Lisa R.; Caldeira, Nathilee A.; Flom, Peter; Wasserman, Gail

2013-01-01

Objective This study examines how emotion regulation deficits in the area of anger arousal and reactivity are associated with child abuse potential in mothers with substance use and depressive disorders in order to identify targeted areas for prevention and treatment. Methods A sample of 152 urban mothers was interviewed on measures of substance use, diagnosis of depression, anger arousal and reactivity, and child abuse potential. Results Linear hierarchical regressions revealed that anger arousal and reactivity exceeded diagnostic and demographic variables in predicting maternal child abuse potential. Additionally, anger arousal and reactivity was found to be a partial mediator of the relationship between diagnostic category and child abuse potential. Conclusions Findings are discussed in relation to a multifaceted model of child abuse potential which broadens the existing literature to include an examination of depression and emotion regulation in order to more fully understand how substance use and child abuse potential are linked. Practice implications Models and approaches which help clients to manage and regulate difficult feeling states, specifically anger, could be helpful, and may be most readily applied in such populations. PMID:20170960

Depression and anger as risk factors underlying the relationship between maternal substance involvement and child abuse potential.

PubMed

Hien, Denise; Cohen, Lisa R; Caldeira, Nathilee A; Flom, Peter; Wasserman, Gail

2010-02-01

This study examines how emotion regulation deficits in the area of anger arousal and reactivity are associated with child abuse potential in mothers with substance use and depressive disorders in order to identify targeted areas for prevention and treatment. A sample of 152 urban mothers was interviewed on measures of substance use, diagnosis of depression, anger arousal and reactivity, and child abuse potential. Linear hierarchical regressions revealed that anger arousal and reactivity exceeded diagnostic and demographic variables in predicting maternal child abuse potential. Additionally, anger arousal and reactivity was found to be a partial mediator of the relationship between diagnostic category and child abuse potential. Findings are discussed in relation to a multifaceted model of child abuse potential which broadens the existing literature to include an examination of depression and emotion regulation in order to more fully understand how substance use and child abuse potential are linked. Models and approaches which help clients to manage and regulate difficult feeling states, specifically anger, could be helpful, and may be most readily applied in such populations. Copyright (c) 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Action Unit Models of Facial Expression of Emotion in the Presence of Speech

PubMed Central

Shah, Miraj; Cooper, David G.; Cao, Houwei; Gur, Ruben C.; Nenkova, Ani; Verma, Ragini

2014-01-01

Automatic recognition of emotion using facial expressions in the presence of speech poses a unique challenge because talking reveals clues for the affective state of the speaker but distorts the canonical expression of emotion on the face. We introduce a corpus of acted emotion expression where speech is either present (talking) or absent (silent). The corpus is uniquely suited for analysis of the interplay between the two conditions. We use a multimodal decision level fusion classifier to combine models of emotion from talking and silent faces as well as from audio to recognize five basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happy and sad. Our results strongly indicate that emotion prediction in the presence of speech from action unit facial features is less accurate when the person is talking. Modeling talking and silent expressions separately and fusing the two models greatly improves accuracy of prediction in the talking setting. The advantages are most pronounced when silent and talking face models are fused with predictions from audio features. In this multi-modal prediction both the combination of modalities and the separate models of talking and silent facial expression of emotion contribute to the improvement. PMID:25525561

The Change in Facial Emotion Recognition Ability in Inpatients with Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia After Electroconvulsive Therapy.

PubMed

Dalkıran, Mihriban; Tasdemir, Akif; Salihoglu, Tamer; Emul, Murat; Duran, Alaattin; Ugur, Mufit; Yavuz, Ruhi

2017-09-01

People with schizophrenia have impairments in emotion recognition along with other social cognitive deficits. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the immediate benefits of ECT on facial emotion recognition ability. Thirty-two treatment resistant patients with schizophrenia who have been indicated for ECT enrolled in the study. Facial emotion stimuli were a set of 56 photographs that depicted seven basic emotions: sadness, anger, happiness, disgust, surprise, fear, and neutral faces. The average age of the participants was 33.4 ± 10.5 years. The rate of recognizing the disgusted facial expression increased significantly after ECT (p < 0.05) and no significant changes were found in the rest of the facial expressions (p > 0.05). After the ECT, the time period of responding to the fear and happy facial expressions were significantly shorter (p < 0.05). Facial emotion recognition ability is an important social cognitive skill for social harmony, proper relation and living independently. At least, the ECT sessions do not seem to affect facial emotion recognition ability negatively and seem to improve identifying disgusted facial emotion which is related with dopamine enriched regions in brain.

Anger Suppression and Subsequent Pain Behaviors among Chronic Low Back Pain Patients: Moderating Effects of Anger Regulation Style

PubMed Central

Quartana, Phillip; Bruehl, Stephen

2013-01-01

Background Suppression of anger is linked to subsequent pain intensity among chronic low back patients, but it is not clear whether anger regulation style (trait anger-out, anger-in) moderates these effects or if aroused anger accounts for links between anger regulation style and pain. Method Chronic low back pain patients (N=58) were assigned to Suppression or No Suppression conditions for a task with harassing confederate and then underwent structured pain behavior procedures. Spielberger Anger Expression Inventory tapped trait anger-out (AOS) and anger-in (AIS). Results Regressions tested Emotion Regulation condition × AOS and AIS effects on outcomes. AOS was related to grimacing and sighing for Suppression condition patients. AIS was related negatively to guarding and bracing for Suppression condition patients. Anger report partly mediated effects for AOS and AIS. Conclusions Anger regulation style moderated effects of state anger suppression on subsequent pain behaviors, effects that were partly explained by aroused anger. PMID:21544702

Assessing Self-concept as a Mediator Between Anger and Resilience in Adolescents With Cancer in Taiwan.

PubMed

Wu, Wei-Wen; Chang, Joanne T; Tsai, Shao-Yu; Liang, Shu-Yuan

Anger is considered a common method used by patients to relieve emotional frustrations. However, this emotional response is not a common research focus for adolescents with cancer. The aim of this study was to determine whether self-concept mediated the relationship between anger and resilience for adolescent patients currently being treated for cancer. A cross-sectional study of 40 adolescents with cancer was conducted. The instruments included the Chinese Beck Self-Concept Inventory, the Chinese Beck Anger Inventory, and the Chinese Resilience Scale. Mediation analysis was also conducted. The results indicate that (1) variations in anger significantly account for 6.86% of observed variations in self-concept, (2) variations in self-concept significantly account for 52.83% of observed variations in resilience, (3) variations in anger significantly account for 10.96% of observed variations in resilience, and (4) when paths in conditions 1 and 2 were controlled, variations in anger through self-concept significantly account for 54.04% of observed variations in resilience, and variations in anger did not significantly account for observed variations in resilience. Gender and age might affect anger control. Despite worse physical functioning and an impacted appearance, participants had normative-to-positive self-concept levels, suggesting that their self-concept might not be affected by cancer. Self-concept might play a mediating role between anger and resilience, thus helping to bridge this knowledge gap. The current gap in knowledge regarding the mediating relationship necessitates the implementation of a large-scale study designed to verify the mediating role of self-concept between anger and resilience.

The mediating role of anger in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and impulsivity.

PubMed

Contractor, Ateka A; Armour, Cherie; Wang, Xin; Forbes, David; Elhai, Jon D

2015-03-01

Research indicates a significant relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anger (Olatunji, Ciesielski, & Tolin, 2010; Orth & Wieland, 2006). Individuals may seek urgent coping to deal with the distress of anger, which is a mobilizing and action-oriented emotion (Novaco & Chemtob, 2002); possibly in the form of impulsive actions consistent with impulsivity's association with anger (Milligan & Waller, 2001; Whiteside & Lynam, 2001). This could be 1 of the explanations for the relationship between PTSD and impulsivity (Kotler, Julian, Efront, & Amir, 2001; Ledgerwood & Petry, 2006). The present study assessed the mediating role of anger between PTSD (overall scores and subscales of arousal and negative alterations in mood/cognitions) and impulsivity, using gender as a covariate of impulsivity. The PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), Dimensions of Anger Reaction scale-5, and the UPPS Impulsivity Scale were administered to a sample of 244 undergraduate students with a trauma history. Results based on 1000 bootstrapped samples indicated significant direct effects of PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) on anger, of anger on impulsivity, and of PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) on impulsivity. Further, anger significantly mediated the relationship between PTSD (overall and 2 subscales) and impulsivity, consistent with the hypothesized models. Results suggest that impulsivity aims at coping with distressing anger, possibly explaining the presence of substance usage, and other impulsive behaviors in people with PTSD. Further, anger probably serves as a mobilizing and action-oriented emotion coupled with PTSD symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional Functioning in Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder: Comparison to Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls.

PubMed

Steenkamp, Maria M; Suvak, Michael K; Dickstein, Benjamin D; Shea, M Tracie; Litz, Brett T

2015-12-01

Few studies have investigated emotional functioning in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). To explore the nature and extent of emotion difficulties in OCPD, the authors examined four domains of self-reported emotional functioning--negative affectivity, anger, emotion regulation, and emotion expressivity--in women with OCPD and compared them to a borderline personality disorder (BPD) group and a healthy control group. Data were collected as part of a larger psychophysiological experimental study on emotion regulation and personality. Compared to healthy controls, participants with OCPD reported significantly higher levels of negative affectivity, trait anger, emotional intensity, and emotion regulation difficulties. Emotion regulation difficulties included lack of emotional clarity, nonacceptance of emotional responses, and limited access to effective emotion regulation strategies. Participants with OCPD scored similarly to participants with BPD on only one variable, namely, problems engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset. Results suggest that OCPD may be characterized by notable difficulties in several emotional domains.

Cultural and gender differences in emotion regulation: relation to depression.

PubMed

Kwon, Hoin; Yoon, K Lira; Joormann, Jutta; Kwon, Jung-Hye

2013-01-01

In the last decade, studies have shown that the use of specific emotion regulation strategies contributes to an increased risk for depression. Past research, however, has overlooked potential cultural and gender differences in emotion regulation. The present study examined the relation between the use of emotion regulation strategies and depressive symptoms among college students in two different cultures (n=380 in Seoul, Korea; n=384 in Miami, USA). Koreans, compared with American students, reported more frequent use of brooding, whereas Americans reported more anger suppression than Koreans. Women were more likely than men to use both types of rumination (i.e., reflective pondering and brooding) and anger suppression in both countries, but these gender differences disappeared once levels of depressive symptoms were controlled for. In addition, the association between the use of reappraisal and depressive symptoms was significantly stronger in the Korean compared to the US sample. In contrast, the association between anger suppression and depressive symptoms was significantly stronger in the American compared to the Korean sample. These findings highlight the importance of considering the role of culture in emotion regulation.

Women's experience of rage: a critical feminist analysis.

PubMed

Flemke, Kimberly; Allen, Katherine R

2008-01-01

We conducted in-depth interviews with 37 incarcerated women on their experience of rage towards their intimate partner. Participants used specific criteria to distinguish their experience of rage from anger. Rage is described as an overwhelming experience with particular physiological and cognitive changes that takes control of a woman's emotions and actions. In contrast, anger is described as a controllable emotion with a specific termination point. Motivations for acting violently in rage with an intimate partner are described and discussed. Findings suggest a primary trigger for experiencing rage is feeling threatened and feeling emotionally overwhelmed.

Mapping emotions through time: how affective trajectories inform the language of emotion.

PubMed

Kirkland, Tabitha; Cunningham, William A

2012-04-01

The words used to describe emotions can provide insight into the basic processes that contribute to emotional experience. We propose that emotions arise partly from interacting evaluations of one's current affective state, previous affective state, predictions for how these may change in the future, and the experienced outcomes following these predictions. These states can be represented and inferred from neural systems that encode shifts in outcomes and make predictions. In two studies, we demonstrate that emotion labels are reliably differentiated from one another using only simple cues about these affective trajectories through time. For example, when a worse-than-expected outcome follows the prediction that something good will happen, that situation is labeled as causing anger, whereas when a worse-than-expected outcome follows the prediction that something bad will happen, that situation is labeled as causing sadness. Emotion categories are more differentiated when participants are required to think categorically than when participants have the option to consider multiple emotions and degrees of emotions. This work indicates that information about affective movement through time and changes in affective trajectory may be a fundamental aspect of emotion categories. Future studies of emotion must account for the dynamic way that we absorb and process information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Low-Income Adolescents Under Stress

PubMed Central

Panjwani, Naaila; Chaplin, Tara M.; Sinha, Rajita; Mayes, Linda C.

2015-01-01

Gender roles in mainstream U.S. culture suggest that girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and shame/embarrassment than boys, while boys express more anger and externalizing emotions, such as contempt. However, gender roles and emotion expression may be different in low-income and ethnically diverse families, as children and parents are often faced with greater environmental stressors and may have different gender expectations. This study examined gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents, an understudied population. One hundred and seventy nine adolescents (aged 14-17) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Trained coders rated adolescents’ expressions of happiness, sadness, anxiety, shame/embarrassment, anger, and contempt during the TSST using a micro-analytic coding system. Analyses showed that, consistent with gender roles, girls expressed higher levels of happiness and shame than boys; however, contrary to traditional gender roles, girls showed higher levels of contempt than boys. Also, in contrast to cultural stereotypes, there were no differences in anger between boys and girls. Findings suggest gender-role inconsistent displays of externalizing emotions in low-income adolescents under acute stress, and may reflect different emotion socialization experiences in this group. PMID:29056804

Gender Differences in Emotion Expression in Low-Income Adolescents Under Stress.

PubMed

Panjwani, Naaila; Chaplin, Tara M; Sinha, Rajita; Mayes, Linda C

2016-06-01

Gender roles in mainstream U.S. culture suggest that girls express more happiness, sadness, anxiety, and shame/embarrassment than boys, while boys express more anger and externalizing emotions, such as contempt. However, gender roles and emotion expression may be different in low-income and ethnically diverse families, as children and parents are often faced with greater environmental stressors and may have different gender expectations. This study examined gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents, an understudied population. One hundred and seventy nine adolescents (aged 14-17) participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Trained coders rated adolescents' expressions of happiness, sadness, anxiety, shame/embarrassment, anger, and contempt during the TSST using a micro-analytic coding system. Analyses showed that, consistent with gender roles, girls expressed higher levels of happiness and shame than boys; however, contrary to traditional gender roles, girls showed higher levels of contempt than boys. Also, in contrast to cultural stereotypes, there were no differences in anger between boys and girls. Findings suggest gender-role inconsistent displays of externalizing emotions in low-income adolescents under acute stress, and may reflect different emotion socialization experiences in this group.

Emotions as guardians of group norms: expressions of anger and disgust drive inferences about autonomy and purity violations.

PubMed

Heerdink, Marc W; Koning, Lukas F; van Doorn, Evert A; van Kleef, Gerben A

2018-05-18

Other people's emotional reactions to a third person's behaviour are potentially informative about what is appropriate within a given situation. We investigated whether and how observers' inferences of such injunctive norms are shaped by expressions of anger and disgust. Building on the moral emotions literature, we hypothesised that angry and disgusted expressions produce relative differences in the strength of autonomy-based versus purity-based norm inferences. We report three studies (plus three supplementary studies) using different types of stimuli (vignette-based, video clips) to investigate how emotional reactions shape norms about potential norm violations (eating snacks, drinking alcohol), and contexts (groups of friends, a university, a company). Consistent with our theoretical argument, the results indicate that observers use others' emotional reactions not only to infer whether a particular behaviour is inappropriate, but also why it is inappropriate: because it primarily violates autonomy standards (as suggested relatively more strongly by expressions of anger) or purity standards (as suggested relatively more strongly by expressions of disgust). We conclude that the social functionality of emotions in groups extends to shaping norms based on moral standards.

Developmental and Individual Differences in the Neural Processing of Dynamic Expressions of Pain and Anger

PubMed Central

Missana, Manuela; Grigutsch, Maren; Grossmann, Tobias

2014-01-01

We examined the processing of facial expressions of pain and anger in 8-month-old infants and adults by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and frontal EEG alpha asymmetry. The ERP results revealed that while adults showed a late positive potential (LPP) to emotional expressions that was enhanced to pain expressions, reflecting increased evaluation and emotional arousal to pain expressions, infants showed a negative component (Nc) to emotional expressions that was enhanced to angry expressions, reflecting increased allocation of attention to angry faces. Moreover, infants and adults showed opposite patterns in their frontal asymmetry responses to pain and anger, suggesting developmental differences in the motivational processes engendered by these facial expressions. These findings are discussed in the light of associated individual differences in infant temperament and adult dispositional empathy. PMID:24705497

Beyond simple pessimism: effects of sadness and anger on social perception.

PubMed

Keltner, D; Ellsworth, P C; Edwards, K

1993-05-01

In keeping with cognitive appraisal models of emotion, it was hypothesized that sadness and anger would exert different influences on causal judgments. Two experiments provided initial support for this hypothesis. Sad Ss perceived situationally caused events as more likely (Experiment 1) and situational forces more responsible for an ambiguous event (Experiment 2) than angry Ss, who, in contrast, perceived events caused by humans as more likely and other people as more responsible. Experiments 3, 4, and 5 showed that the experience of these emotions, rather than their cognitive constituents, mediates these effects. The nonemotional exposure to situational or human agency information did not influence causal judgments (Experiment 3), whereas the induction of sadness and anger without explicit agency information did (Experiments 4 and 5). Discussion is focused on the influence of emotion on social judgment.

Anger and Sadness in Response to an Emotionally-Neutral Film: Evidence for Age-Specific Associations with Well-Being

PubMed Central

Haase, Claudia M.; Seider, Benjamin H.; Shiota, Michelle N.; Levenson, Robert W.

2011-01-01

When the association between emotion and well-being is being considered, positive emotions usually come to mind. However, negative emotions serve important adaptive functions and particular negative emotions may be especially adaptive at different stages of adult development. We examined the associations between self-reported negative emotions in response to an emotionally-neutral, thematically-ambiguous film and subjective well-being among 76 young (age 20–29), 73 middle-aged (age 40–49), and 73 older (age 60–69) adults. Results indicated that higher self-reported anger in response to the film was associated with higher well-being for middle-aged adults, but not for young and older adults. Higher self-reported sadness in response to the film was associated with higher well-being for older adults, but not for young and middle-aged adults. These findings were stronger for cognitive well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life) than for affective well-being (i.e., ratio of positive to negative affect) and were specific to these emotions (not found for self-reported disgust or fear) and to the emotionally-neutral film (not found for sad or disgusting films). Results are discussed in terms of the functions that anger and sadness are thought to serve and the control opportunities afforded in midlife and late life that render these functions differentially adaptive. PMID:21843005

The role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotion-related phenomena: a review and update.

PubMed

Harmon-Jones, Eddie; Gable, Philip A; Peterson, Carly K

2010-07-01

Conceptual and empirical approaches to the study of the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotional processes are reviewed. Although early research suggested that greater left than right frontal cortical activity was associated with positive affect, more recent research, primarily on anger, suggests that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with approach motivation, which can be positive (e.g., enthusiasm) or negative in valence (e.g., anger). In addition to reviewing this research on anger, research on guilt, bipolar disorder, and various types of positive affect is reviewed with relation to their association with asymmetric frontal cortical activity. The reviewed research not only contributes to a more complete understanding of the emotive functions of asymmetric frontal cortical activity, but it also points to the importance of considering motivational direction as separate from affective valence in psychological models of emotional space. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Is There Any Hope? How Climate Change News Imagery and Text Influence Audience Emotions and Support for Climate Mitigation Policies.

PubMed

Feldman, Lauren; Hart, P Sol

2018-03-01

Using a national sample, this study experimentally tests the effects of news visuals and texts that emphasize either the causes and impacts of climate change or actions that can be taken to address climate change. We test the effects of variations in text and imagery on discrete emotions (i.e., hope, fear, and anger) and, indirectly, on support for climate mitigation policies. Political ideology is examined as a moderator. The findings indicate that news images and texts that focus on climate-oriented actions can increase hope and, in the case of texts, decrease fear and anger, and these effects generally hold across the ideological spectrum. In turn, the influence of emotions on policy support depends on ideology: Hope and fear increase support for climate policies for all ideological groups but particularly conservatives, whereas anger polarizes the opinions of liberals and conservatives. Implications for climate change communication that appeals to emotions are discussed. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Hostility/anger as a mediator between college students' emotion regulation abilities and symptoms of depression, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety.

PubMed

Asberg, Kia

2013-01-01

Internalizing problems are common among college students and have been linked consistently to deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Also, hostility/anger (animosity toward others, phenomenological aspect of anger) is an important feature of internalizing problems, but has received limited attention as a mediator between ER and outcomes. Results (N = 160) indicated that although college students' ER abilities corresponded with all three types of internalizing symptoms, hostility/anger mediated fully the relationship for symptoms of depression and social anxiety, but not generalized anxiety (GAD). The stronger interpersonal aspect inherent in depression and social anxiety relative to GAD may in part explain findings, but findings must be viewed in lieu of limitations, which include self-report, a non-clinical sample, and a cross-sectional design. Overall, hostility/anger may be important to address in interventions and programs aimed at reducing internalizing problems, especially among those who demonstrate ER deficits and are prone to depression and social anxiety.

Visual search for emotional expressions: Effect of stimulus set on anger and happiness superiority.

PubMed

Savage, Ruth A; Becker, Stefanie I; Lipp, Ottmar V

2016-01-01

Prior reports of preferential detection of emotional expressions in visual search have yielded inconsistent results, even for face stimuli that avoid obvious expression-related perceptual confounds. The current study investigated inconsistent reports of anger and happiness superiority effects using face stimuli drawn from the same database. Experiment 1 excluded procedural differences as a potential factor, replicating a happiness superiority effect in a procedure that previously yielded an anger superiority effect. Experiments 2a and 2b confirmed that image colour or poser gender did not account for prior inconsistent findings. Experiments 3a and 3b identified stimulus set as the critical variable, revealing happiness or anger superiority effects for two partially overlapping sets of face stimuli. The current results highlight the critical role of stimulus selection for the observation of happiness or anger superiority effects in visual search even for face stimuli that avoid obvious expression related perceptual confounds and are drawn from a single database.

Anger, preoccupied attachment, and domain disorganization in borderline personality disorder

PubMed Central

Morse, Jennifer Q.; Hill, Jonathan; Pilkonis, Paul A.; Yaggi, Kirsten; Broyden, Nichaela; Stepp, Stephanie; Reed, Lawrence Ian; Feske, Ulrike

2010-01-01

Emotional dysregulation and attachment insecurity have been reported in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Domain disorganization, evidenced in poor regulation of emotions and behaviors in relation to the demands of different social domains, may be a distinguishing feature of BPD. Understanding the interplay between these factors may be critical for identifying interacting processes in BPD and potential subtypes of BPD. Therefore, we examined the joint and interactive effects of anger, preoccupied attachment, and domain disorganization on BPD traits in clinical sample of 128 psychiatric patients. The results suggest that these factors contribute to BPD both independently and in interaction, even when controlling for other personality disorder traits and Axis I symptoms. In regression analyses, the interaction between anger and domain disorganization predicted BPD traits. In recursive partitioning analyses, two possible paths to BPD were identified: high anger combined with high domain disorganization and low anger combined with preoccupied attachment. These results may suggest possible subtypes of BPD or possible mechanisms by which BPD traits are established and maintained. PMID:19538080

The personality basis of aggression: The mediating role of anger and the moderating role of emotional intelligence.

PubMed

García-Sancho, Esperanza; Dhont, Kristof; Salguero, José M; Fernández-Berrocal, Pablo

2017-08-01

High neuroticism and low agreeableness have been found to predict higher levels of aggression through an increase of negative emotions such as anger. However, previous research has only investigated these indirect associations for physical aggression, whereas evidence for such indirect effects on other types of aggression (i.e., verbal or indirect aggression) is currently lacking. Moreover, no previous work has investigated the moderating role of Ability Emotional Intelligence (AEI), which may buffer against the effects of anger on aggression. The present study (N = 665) directly addresses these gaps in the literature. The results demonstrate that high neuroticism and low agreeableness were indirectly related to higher levels of physical, verbal, and indirect aggression via increased chronic accessibility to anger. Importantly however, the associations with physical aggression were significantly weaker for those higher (vs. lower) on AEI, confirming the buffering role of AEI. We discuss the implications of our findings for theoretical frameworks aiming to understand and reduce aggression and violent behavior. © 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Influence of trait behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach motivation systems on the LPP and frontal asymmetry to anger pictures.

PubMed

Gable, Philip A; Poole, Bryan D

2014-02-01

Behavioral approach and avoidance are fundamental to the experience of emotion and motivation, but the motivational system associated with anger is not well established. Some theories posit that approach motivational processes underlie anger, whereas others posit that avoidance motivational processes underlie anger. The current experiment sought to address whether traits related to behavioral approach or avoidance influence responses to anger stimuli using multiple measures: ERP, electroencephalographic (EEG) α-asymmetry and self-report. After completing the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales, participants viewed anger pictures and neutral pictures. BAS predicted larger late positive potentials (LPPs) to anger pictures, but not to neutral pictures. In addition, BAS predicted greater left-frontal asymmetry to anger pictures. Moreover, larger LPPs to anger pictures related to greater left-frontal EEG asymmetry during anger pictures. These results suggest that trait approach motivation relates to neurophysiological responses of anger.

Influence of trait behavioral inhibition and behavioral approach motivation systems on the LPP and frontal asymmetry to anger pictures

PubMed Central

Poole, Bryan D.

2014-01-01

Behavioral approach and avoidance are fundamental to the experience of emotion and motivation, but the motivational system associated with anger is not well established. Some theories posit that approach motivational processes underlie anger, whereas others posit that avoidance motivational processes underlie anger. The current experiment sought to address whether traits related to behavioral approach or avoidance influence responses to anger stimuli using multiple measures: ERP, electroencephalographic (EEG) α-asymmetry and self-report. After completing the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales, participants viewed anger pictures and neutral pictures. BAS predicted larger late positive potentials (LPPs) to anger pictures, but not to neutral pictures. In addition, BAS predicted greater left-frontal asymmetry to anger pictures. Moreover, larger LPPs to anger pictures related to greater left-frontal EEG asymmetry during anger pictures. These results suggest that trait approach motivation relates to neurophysiological responses of anger. PMID:23175676

Coping with Scleroderma

MedlinePlus

... it much easier to adjust. THE EMOTIONS Denial, Anger and Depression Once testing has occurred and a diagnosis is ... attached on the reverse side of this panel. Anger and Depression After you’ve had time to understand the ...

Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Anger, Mood, and Vulnerability to Substance Use among Inpatient Substance-Dependent Clients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Wei-Fen; Mack, David; Enright, Robert D.; Krahn, Dean; Baskin, Thomas W.

2004-01-01

Anger and related emotions have been identified as triggers in substance use. Forgiveness therapy (FT) targets anger, anxiety, and depression as foci of treatment. Fourteen patients with substance dependence from a local residential treatment facility were randomly assigned to and completed either 12 approximately twice-weekly sessions of…

Mobilizing Anger for Social Justice: The Politicization of the Emotions in Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zembylas, Michalinos

2007-01-01

In this paper, I use feminist and poststructuralist discourses to suggest that the politicization of anger in education is not only inevitable but also desirable. In particular, an analysis of anger in education may offer certain critical advantages, including a better understanding of the importance of "being angry" in political terms. As various…

Impairment in judgement of the moral emotion guilt following orbitofrontal cortex damage.

PubMed

Funayama, Michitaka; Koreki, Akihiro; Muramatsu, Taro; Mimura, Masaru; Kato, Motoichiro; Abe, Takayuki

2018-04-19

Although neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for an association between moral emotions and the orbitofrontal cortex, studies on patients with focal lesions using experimental probes of moral emotions are scarce. Here, we addressed this topic by presenting a moral emotion judgement task to patients with focal brain damage. Four judgement tasks in a simple pairwise choice paradigm were given to 72 patients with cerebrovascular disease. These tasks consisted of a perceptual line judgement task as a control task; the objects' preference task as a basic preference judgement task; and two types of moral emotion judgement task, an anger task and a guilt task. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed on each set of task performance scores to take into account potential confounders. Performance on the guilt emotion judgement task negatively correlated with the orbitofrontal cortex damage, but not with the other variables. Results for the other judgement tasks did not reach statistical significance. The close association between orbitofrontal cortex damage and a decrease in guilt emotion judgement consistency might suggest that the orbitofrontal cortex plays a key role in the sense of guilt, a hallmark of morality. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Emotion traits in older suicide attempters and non-attempters.

PubMed

Seidlitz, L; Conwell, Y; Duberstein, P; Cox, C; Denning, D

2001-10-01

Emotion is a flourishing area of cross-disciplinary research that can inform traditional approaches to psychopathology. The present study examines emotion traits associated with attempted suicide in a depressed older sample. Seven emotion traits were compared in depressed inpatients, age 50 years or older, who either had made a suicide attempt after age 50 (n=47) or had never made a suicide attempt (n=38) as assessed by self-report and a review of available medical records. In univariate analyses controlled for age and sex, late-life suicide attempters were lower in Warmth and Positive Emotions than non-attempters. However, only lower Anxiety was associated with attempter status when all seven emotion traits were included as predictors. Of the attempters, those who had made a greater number of attempts reported lower Positive Emotions and higher Anger/Hostility and Guilt, though only lower Positive Emotions had a significant effect independent of the other emotions. In a subsample of 41 patients whose index admission was precipitated by an attempt, lower Anger/Hostility was associated with higher intent to die, and lower Anger/Hostility and lower Guilt was associated with higher lethality of method. The assessments of emotion traits may have been colored by transient moods, including, for the recent attempters, moods associated with the aftermath of their attempt. Participants who completed the key measures may not be representative of older attempters. Emotion traits are associated with suicidal behavior in older depressed patients, and the specific type of emotion and the direction of its association depends on the specific suicide variable examined. Emotion traits may be helpful in assessing suicide risk.

Fear, Anger, Fruits, and Veggies: Interactive Effects of Emotion and Message Framing on Health Behavior

PubMed Central

Gerend, Mary A.; Maner, Jon K.

2010-01-01

Objective Message framing is a theoretically grounded health communication strategy designed to motivate action by emphasizing the benefits of engaging in a particular behavior (gains) or the costs of failing to engage in the behavior (losses). This study investigated whether the effectiveness of a framed message depends on the emotional state of the message recipient. We examined effects of fear versus anger, emotions that frequently occur within the context of health decision-making. Methods Undergraduate students (N = 133) were randomly assigned to complete a fear or anger induction task after which they read a gain- or loss-framed pamphlet promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. Fruit and vegetable intake (servings per day) was subsequently assessed over the following two weeks. Results As predicted, a significant frame by emotion interaction was observed, such that participants in the fear condition reported eating more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a loss-framed message than to a gain-framed message. In contrast, participants in the anger condition reported eating (marginally) more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a gain-framed message than to a loss-framed message. That is, greater increases in fruit and vegetable intake from baseline to follow-up were observed when frame was matched to participants’ emotional state than when it was mismatched. Conclusion The effectiveness of framed health communications depends on the message recipient’s current emotional state. Affective factors that are incidental to the behavior recommended in a health communication can affect the relative success of gain- and loss-framed appeals. PMID:21534679

Chronic and episodic anger and gratitude toward the organization: Relationships with organizational and supervisor supportiveness and extrarole behavior.

PubMed

Ford, Michael T; Wang, Yanxia; Jin, Jiafei; Eisenberger, Robert

2018-04-01

Gratitude and anger represent 2 fundamental moral emotions in response to help or harm. Research suggests that individuals perceive organizations to have humanlike qualities and thus hold them responsible for helpful or harmful treatment. Given this line of reasoning, we hypothesized that workers direct gratitude toward their organizations in response to supportive treatment and anger toward their organizations in response to unsupportive treatment. Gratitude and anger, in turn, were expected to influence daily extrarole behavior. After developing short measures of organization-directed anger and gratitude in 2 pilot studies, we tested these hypotheses in a daily diary study of 54 workers providing 421 daily reports. Results indicate that perceived organizational support was related to chronic gratitude and anger, which is stable from day to day, and chronic gratitude was in turn related to chronic differences in organizational citizenship behavior. Episodic anger and gratitude, which vary daily, were related to daily supervisor interactional justice and helping behavior, respectively, and in turn predicted daily episodic variance in organizational citizenship and counterproductive work behavior. These findings suggest that the moral emotions of gratitude and anger toward the organization are indicators of employee affective well-being and play a mediating role in the effects of organizational and supervisor supportiveness on employee performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Apology isn't good enough: an apology suppresses an approach motivation but not the physiological and psychological anger.

PubMed

Kubo, Kenta; Okanoya, Kazuo; Kawai, Nobuyuki

2012-01-01

Although studies have emphasized the multiple components of anger, little is known about the physiological and psychological mechanisms of the approach motivational component and the negative emotional component of anger. In the present study, participants wrote brief opinions about social problems (e.g., tuition hikes) and received a handwritten, insulting comment about their composition from the experimenter. Half of the participants (apology group) received a simple apologetic sentence at the end of the insulting comment. Half of the participants (no apology group) did not receive one. The physiological responses of the participants were recorded prior to, and after they read the comments. Increases in heart rate and asymmetric frontal brain activity were suppressed only in the apology group. Both groups showed an increase in skin conductance response. Our psychological scales showed that the apology suppressed self reported state anger from an approach-motivational standpoint but not from a negative emotional standpoint. The results suggest that anger is not a unitary process but has multiple components. The apology did provide a different physiological profile but did not dampen down the subjective experience of anger. Thus, providing an apology may not always be effective for alleviating the experience of anger to an insult.

Apology Isn't Good Enough: An Apology Suppresses an Approach Motivation but Not the Physiological and Psychological Anger

PubMed Central

Kubo, Kenta; Okanoya, Kazuo; Kawai, Nobuyuki

2012-01-01

Although studies have emphasized the multiple components of anger, little is known about the physiological and psychological mechanisms of the approach motivational component and the negative emotional component of anger. In the present study, participants wrote brief opinions about social problems (e.g., tuition hikes) and received a handwritten, insulting comment about their composition from the experimenter. Half of the participants (apology group) received a simple apologetic sentence at the end of the insulting comment. Half of the participants (no apology group) did not receive one. The physiological responses of the participants were recorded prior to, and after they read the comments. Increases in heart rate and asymmetric frontal brain activity were suppressed only in the apology group. Both groups showed an increase in skin conductance response. Our psychological scales showed that the apology suppressed self reported state anger from an approach-motivational standpoint but not from a negative emotional standpoint. The results suggest that anger is not a unitary process but has multiple components. The apology did provide a different physiological profile but did not dampen down the subjective experience of anger. Thus, providing an apology may not always be effective for alleviating the experience of anger to an insult. PMID:22457729

Emotion differentiation dissected: between-category, within-category, and integral emotion differentiation, and their relation to well-being.

PubMed

Erbas, Yasemin; Ceulemans, Eva; Blanke, Elisabeth S; Sels, Laura; Fischer, Agneta; Kuppens, Peter

2018-04-24

Emotion differentiation, the ability to describe and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner, has been repeatedly associated with well-being. However, it is unclear exactly what type of differentiation is most strongly related to well-being: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions that are relatively closely related (e.g. anger and irritation), the ability to make larger distinctions between very distinct emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), or the combination of both. To determine which type of differentiation is most predictive of well-being, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis across six datasets. We examined the correlations between these three types of differentiation and several indicators of well-being (depression, emotional clarity, and self-esteem). Results showed that individuals differentiated most between very distinct emotions and least between more related emotions, and that an index computed across emotions from both the same and different emotion categories was most strongly associated with well-being indicators.

Emotion processing in chimeric faces: hemispheric asymmetries in expression and recognition of emotions.

PubMed

Indersmitten, Tim; Gur, Ruben C

2003-05-01

Since the discovery of facial asymmetries in emotional expressions of humans and other primates, hypotheses have related the greater left-hemiface intensity to right-hemispheric dominance in emotion processing. However, the difficulty of creating true frontal views of facial expressions in two-dimensional photographs has confounded efforts to better understand the phenomenon. We have recently described a method for obtaining three-dimensional photographs of posed and evoked emotional expressions and used these stimuli to investigate both intensity of expression and accuracy of recognizing emotion in chimeric faces constructed from only left- or right-side composites. The participant population included 38 (19 male, 19 female) African-American, Caucasian, and Asian adults. They were presented with chimeric composites generated from faces of eight actors and eight actresses showing four emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, and fear, each in posed and evoked conditions. We replicated the finding that emotions are expressed more intensely in the left hemiface for all emotions and conditions, with the exception of evoked anger, which was expressed more intensely in the right hemiface. In contrast, the results indicated that emotional expressions are recognized more efficiently in the right hemiface, indicating that the right hemiface expresses emotions more accurately. The double dissociation between the laterality of expression intensity and that of recognition efficiency supports the notion that the two kinds of processes may have distinct neural substrates. Evoked anger is uniquely expressed more intensely and accurately on the side of the face that projects to the viewer's right hemisphere, dominant in emotion recognition.

It depends: Approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions are influenced by the contrast emotions presented in the task.

PubMed

Paulus, Andrea; Wentura, Dirk

2016-02-01

Studies examining approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions have yielded conflicting results. For example, expressions of anger have been reported to elicit approach reactions in some studies but avoidance reactions in others. Nonetheless, the results were often explained by the same general underlying process, namely the influence that the social message signaled by the expression has on motivational responses. It is therefore unclear which reaction is triggered by which emotional expression, and which underlying process is responsible for these reactions. In order to address this issue, we examined the role of a potential moderator on approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions, namely the contrast emotion used in the task. We believe that different approach and avoidance reactions occur depending on the congruency or incongruency of the evaluation of the 2 emotions presented in the task. The results from a series of experiments supported these assumptions: Negative emotional expressions (anger, fear, sadness) elicited avoidance reactions if contrasted with expressions of happiness. However, if contrasted with a different negative emotional expression, anger and sadness triggered approach reactions and fear activated avoidance reactions. Importantly, these results also emerged if the emotional expression was not task-relevant. We propose that approach and avoidance reactions to emotional expressions are triggered by their evaluation if the 2 emotions presented in a task differ in evaluative connotation. If they have the same evaluative connotation, however, reactions are determined by their social message. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Trauma exposure and aggression toward partners and children: Contextual influences of fear and anger.

PubMed

Marshall, Amy D; Roettger, Michael E; Mattern, Alexandra C; Feinberg, Mark E; Jones, Damon E

2018-05-07

Trauma exposure is a consistent correlate of intimate partner aggression (IPA) and parent-to-child aggression (PCA) perpetration, and difficulties with emotions (particularly fear and anger) are hypothesized to underlie these relations. However, the absence of knowledge of the immediate, contextual influence of emotions on aggression renders existing conclusions tenuous. This study illustrates a new method for studying contextual influences on aggressive behavior. Quarterly for 1 year, 94 men and 109 women with children age 2.5 years at study commencement were interviewed to measure the sequence of behaviors during aggressive incidents as well as the intensity of their emotions immediately prior to initiation of aggression. Within aggressive incidents, the number of acts of men's PCA was predicted by men's greater fear, anger, and trauma exposure, and the positive association between men's trauma exposure and PCA perpetration was especially strong under conditions of high fear and anger. In contrast, men's IPA was predicted by greater fear and anger, but not trauma exposure. Men with low trauma exposure engaged in more IPA under conditions of high fear; among men with high trauma exposure, fear inhibited their IPA persistence. Trauma exposure and fear interacted in the same manner to predict women's IPA, but many other findings among men did not generalize to women's aggression. This study illuminates the utility of simultaneously examining aggression across genders and family dyads, and serves as a foundation for refining theories of trauma and family aggression to account for emotion as a factor that can both motivate and inhibit aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Who Expressed What Emotion? Men Grab Anger, Women Grab Happiness

PubMed Central

Neel, Rebecca; Becker, D. Vaughn; Neuberg, Steven L.; Kenrick, Douglas T.

2011-01-01

When anger or happiness flashes on a face in the crowd, do we misperceive that emotion as belonging to someone else? Two studies found that misperception of apparent emotional expressions – “illusory conjunctions” – depended on the gender of the target: male faces tended to “grab” anger from neighboring faces, and female faces tended to grab happiness. Importantly, the evidence did not suggest that this effect was due to the general tendency to misperceive male or female faces as angry or happy, but instead indicated a more subtle interaction of expectations and early visual processes. This suggests a novel aspect of affordance-management in human perception, whereby cues to threat, when they appear, are attributed to those with the greatest capability of doing harm, whereas cues to friendship are attributed to those with the greatest likelihood of providing affiliation opportunities. PMID:22368303

Self-Reported Psychopathology, Trauma Symptoms, and Emotion Coping Among Child Suicide Attempters and Ideators: An Exploratory Study of Young Children.

PubMed

Bodzy, Mary E; Barreto, Steven J; Swenson, Lance P; Liguori, Gina; Costea, Geanina

2016-01-01

This study examined self-reported psychopathology, trauma symptoms, and emotion coping in 7 to 12 year old children with suicidal ideation and attempts. This study compared 70 psychiatric inpatient children with current suicidal ideation to 59 psychiatric inpatient children with recent suicide attempts on measures of depression, anxiety, anger, emotional intelligence, and family/contextual factors. Results revealed greater self-reported anger as well as psychological distress associated with traumatic experiences (dissociation, anger, depression), among children who attempted suicide, in addition to increased reports of special education utilization, when compared to ideators only. These relationships were not affected by age or gender. Overall, the findings suggest self-reports of younger children who attempt suicide share similarities with older children and adolescent attempters, when compared with ideators who do not attempt. Implications for assessment and treatment are discussed.

Screaming, Yelling, Whining and Crying: Categorical and intensity differences in Vocal Expressions of Anger and Sadness in Children's Tantrums

PubMed Central

Green, James A.; Whitney, Pamela G.; Potegal, Michael

2011-01-01

Young children's temper tantrums offer a unique window into the expression and regulation of strong emotions. Previous work, largely based on parental report, suggests that two emotions, anger and sadness, have different behavioral manifestations and different time courses within tantrums. Individual motor and vocal behaviors, reported by parents, have been interpreted as representing different levels of intensity within each emotion category. The present study used high fidelity audio recordings to capture the acoustic features of children's vocalizations during tantrums. Results indicated that perceptually categorized screaming, yelling, crying, whining, and fussing each have distinct acoustic features. Screaming and yelling form a group with similar acoustic features while crying, whining, and fussing form a second acoustically related group. Within these groups, screaming may reflect a higher intensity of anger than yelling while fussing, whining and crying may reflect an increasing intensity of sadness. PMID:21707157

Differences in holistic processing do not explain cultural differences in the recognition of facial expression.

PubMed

Yan, Xiaoqian; Young, Andrew W; Andrews, Timothy J

2017-12-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of the own-race advantage in facial expression perception. In Experiment 1, we investigated Western Caucasian and Chinese participants' perception and categorization of facial expressions of six basic emotions that included two pairs of confusable expressions (fear and surprise; anger and disgust). People were slightly better at identifying facial expressions posed by own-race members (mainly in anger and disgust). In Experiment 2, we asked whether the own-race advantage was due to differences in the holistic processing of facial expressions. Participants viewed composite faces in which the upper part of one expression was combined with the lower part of a different expression. The upper and lower parts of the composite faces were either aligned or misaligned. Both Chinese and Caucasian participants were better at identifying the facial expressions from the misaligned images, showing interference on recognizing the parts of the expressions created by holistic perception of the aligned composite images. However, this interference from holistic processing was equivalent across expressions of own-race and other-race faces in both groups of participants. Whilst the own-race advantage in recognizing facial expressions does seem to reflect the confusability of certain emotions, it cannot be explained by differences in holistic processing.

The Social Context of Anger among Violent Forensic Patients: An Analysis via Experience Sampling Method.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hillbrand, Marc; Waite, Bradley M.

1992-01-01

Used Experience Sampling Method to investigate experiences of anger in 10 patients at maximum security forensic institute who had histories of severe, violent behavior. Found severity of anger influenced by type of activity in which subject was engaged and by emotional valence of preceding events but not by time of day nor by type of interpersonal…

The Relation between Anger Coping Strategies, Anger Mood and Somatic Complaints in Children and Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miers, Anne C.; Rieffe, Carolien; Terwogt, Mark Meerum; Cowan, Richard; Linden, Wolfgang

2007-01-01

Attempts to explain the experience of somatic complaints among children and adolescents suggest that they may in part result from the influence of particular strategies for coping with anger on the longevity of negative emotions. To explore these relationships British (n = 393) and Dutch (n = 99) children completed a modified version of the…

A functional polymorphism of the MAOA gene is associated with neural responses to induced anger control.

PubMed

Denson, Thomas F; Dobson-Stone, Carol; Ronay, Richard; von Hippel, William; Schira, Mark M

2014-07-01

Aggressiveness is highly heritable. Recent experimental work has linked individual differences in a functional polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase-A gene (MAOA) to anger-driven aggression. Other work has implicated the dorsal ACC (dACC) in cognitive-emotional control and the amygdala in emotional arousal. The present imaging genetics study investigated dACC and amygdala reactivity to induced anger control as a function of MAOA genotype. A research assistant asked 38 healthy male undergraduates to control their anger in response to an insult by a rude experimenter. Men with the low-expression allele showed increased dACC and amygdala activation after the insult, but men with the high-expression allele did not. Both dACC and amygdala activation independently mediated the relationship between MAOA genotype and self-reported anger control. Moreover, following the insult, men with the high-functioning allele showed functional decoupling between the amygdala and dACC, but men with the low-functioning allele did not. These results suggest that heightened dACC and amygdala activation and their connectivity are neuroaffective mechanisms underlying anger control in participants with the low-functioning allele of the MAOA gene.

Reasoning about the implications of facial expressions: a behavioral and fMRI study on low and high social impact.

PubMed

Prochnow, D; Brunheim, S; Steinhäuser, L; Seitz, R J

2014-10-01

Inferring the cause of another person's emotional state is relevant for guiding behavior in social interactions. With respect to their potentially evoked behavioral reactions some emotional states like anger or happiness are considered to have high social impact while others such as fear and sadness have low social impact. We conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to map the brain activation patterns related to reasoning about facial expressions of emotions with high or low social impact in twenty-six healthy volunteers with good emotional competence, self-reported empathy, and explicit facial affect recognition abilities. Our data show that empathic reasoning was faster and more accurate for high impact emotional states than for low impact emotional states. Activated brain areas involved brain circuits associated with basic and higher order empathy and decision-making in the dorsomedial and dorsolateral frontal cortex. However, activation in higher order areas was less during reasoning about emotional states of high social impact. Taken together, reasoning of high and low impact emotional states relied on similar empathy-related brain areas with reasoning about emotional states of low social impact being more erroneous and requiring more cognitive resources. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotion recognition deficits associated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions are improved by gaze manipulation.

PubMed

Wolf, Richard C; Pujara, Maia; Baskaya, Mustafa K; Koenigs, Michael

2016-09-01

Facial emotion recognition is a critical aspect of human communication. Since abnormalities in facial emotion recognition are associated with social and affective impairment in a variety of psychiatric and neurological conditions, identifying the neural substrates and psychological processes underlying facial emotion recognition will help advance basic and translational research on social-affective function. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) has recently been implicated in deploying visual attention to the eyes of emotional faces, although there is mixed evidence regarding the importance of this brain region for recognition accuracy. In the present study of neurological patients with vmPFC damage, we used an emotion recognition task with morphed facial expressions of varying intensities to determine (1) whether vmPFC is essential for emotion recognition accuracy, and (2) whether instructed attention to the eyes of faces would be sufficient to improve any accuracy deficits. We found that vmPFC lesion patients are impaired, relative to neurologically healthy adults, at recognizing moderate intensity expressions of anger and that recognition accuracy can be improved by providing instructions of where to fixate. These results suggest that vmPFC may be important for the recognition of facial emotion through a role in guiding visual attention to emotionally salient regions of faces. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Depression, anxiety and anger in subtypes of irritable bowel syndrome patients.

PubMed

Muscatello, Maria Rosaria A; Bruno, Antonio; Pandolfo, Gianluca; Micò, Umberto; Stilo, Simona; Scaffidi, Mariagrazia; Consolo, Pierluigi; Tortora, Andrea; Pallio, Socrate; Giacobbe, Giuseppa; Familiari, Luigi; Zoccali, Rocco

2010-03-01

The present study aimed to elucidate the differences in depression, anxiety, anger, and quality of life in a sample of non-psychiatric IBS patients, starting from the hypothesis that IBS subtypes may have different symptomatic expressions of negative emotions with different outcomes on quality of life measures. Forty-two constipation-predominant IBS (C-IBS) subjects and 44 diarrhea-predominant IBS (D-IBS) subjects, after an examination by a gastroenterologist and a total colonoscopy, underwent a clinical interview and psychometric examination for the assessment of depression, anxiety, anger and quality of life. IBS subtypes showed different symptomatic profiles in depression, anxiety and anger, with C-IBS patients more psychologically distressed than D-IBS subjects. Affective and emotional symptoms should be considered as specific and integral to the syndrome, and recognizing the differences between IBS subtypes may have relevant implications for treatment options and clinical outcome.

Coping with the 10th anniversary of 9/11: Muslim Americans' sadness, fear, and anger.

PubMed

Rodriguez Mosquera, Patricia M; Khan, Tasmiha; Selya, Arielle

2013-01-01

The events of 9/11 marked an increase in prejudice, discrimination, and other forms of unfair treatment toward Muslim Americans. We present a study that examined the emotions of Muslim Americans in the days preceding the ten-year 9/11 anniversary. We measured the antecedents (concerns) and consequences (coping) of sadness, fear, and anger. The 9/11 anniversary precipitated intense concerns with loss and discrimination, and intense feelings of sadness, fear, and anger. We measured three coping responses: rumination, avoidance of public places, and religious coping. Participants engaged in all three coping responses, with seeking solace in one's religion being the most frequent response. Moreover, emotions mediated the relationship between concerns and coping responses. Sadness accounted for the association between concern with loss and rumination. Fear explained the association between concern with discrimination and avoidance. Anger accounted for the association between concern with discrimination and religious coping.

Disrupted response inhibition toward facial anger cues in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Köchel, Angelika; Leutgeb, Verena; Schienle, Anne

2014-04-01

This event-related potential study focused on neural correlates of inhibitory affective control in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Sixteen boys with ADHD and 16 healthy boys underwent an emotional Go/NoGo task with pictures of facial expressions from the categories anger, sadness, happiness, and neutral. The participants were instructed to execute or withhold a motor response to specific emotions. Patients relative to controls displayed a severe impairment in response inhibition toward anger cues, which was accompanied by a reduced P300 amplitude (positive voltage deflection about 300 ms after picture onset). The control group showed a P300 differentiation of the affective categories that was absent in the ADHD group. The pronounced anger-processing deficit in ADHD patients might be linked to their interpersonal difficulties and should be addressed in psychotherapy.

The CAD triad hypothesis: a mapping between three moral emotions (contempt, anger, disgust) and three moral codes (community, autonomy, divinity).

PubMed

Rozin, P; Lowery, L; Imada, S; Haidt, J

1999-04-01

It is proposed that 3 emotions--contempt, anger, and disgust--are typically elicited, across cultures, by violations of 3 moral codes proposed by R. A. Shweder and his colleagues (R. A. Shweder, N. C. Much, M. Mahapatra, & L. Park, 1997). The proposed alignment links anger to autonomy (individual rights violations), contempt to community (violation of communal codes including hierarchy), and disgust to divinity (violations of purity-sanctity). This is the CAD triad hypothesis. Students in the United States and Japan were presented with descriptions of situations that involve 1 of the types of moral violations and asked to assign either an appropriate facial expression (from a set of 6) or an appropriate word (contempt, anger, disgust, or their translations). Results generally supported the CAD triad hypothesis. Results were further confirmed by analysis of facial expressions actually made by Americans to the descriptions of these situations.

Anger, Control, and Intimate Partner Violence in Young Adulthood

PubMed Central

Giordano, Peggy C.; Copp, Jennifer E.; Longmore, Monica A.; Manning, Wendy D.

2015-01-01

A common theme in the literature is that intimate partner violence (IPV) is not about anger, but about power and control. While prior research has focused either on respondents' or partners' controlling behaviors, an interactionist perspective provides the basis for hypothesizing that both respondent and partner control will be significantly related to the odds of reporting perpetration, and that emotional processes are a component of IPV experiences. Analyses rely on interview data collected at waves 1 and 5 of a longitudinal study (Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study; n = 928) of adolescent and young adult relationships. Results indicate that after controlling for traditional predictors, both respondent and partner control attempts and measures of anger (including a measure of relationship-based anger) contributed significantly to the odds of reporting perpetration. Further, these patterns did not differ by gender, indicating some areas of similarity in the relationship and emotional processes associated with variations in men and women's IPV reports. PMID:26924886

Personality, disease severity, and the risk of long-term cardiac events in patients with a decreased ejection fraction after myocardial infarction.

PubMed

Denollet, J; Brutsaert, D L

1998-01-20

Patients with myocardial infarction (MI) with a decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) have a poor prognosis, but the role of emotional stress in prognosis is not known. We hypothesized that emotional stress in these patients (1) is unrelated to the severity of cardiac disorder, (2) predicts cardiac events, and (3) is a function of basic personality traits. Eighty-seven patients with MI (age, 41 to 69 years) with an LVEF of < or =50% underwent psychological assessment at baseline. Patients and their families were contacted after 6 to 10 years (mean, 7.9 years); cardiac events were defined as cardiac death or nonfatal MI. Emotional distress was unrelated to the severity of cardiac disorder. At follow-up, 21 patients had experienced a cardiac event (13 fatal events). These events were related to LVEF of < or =30%, poor exercise tolerance, previous MI, anxiety, anger, and depression (all P< or =.02). Patients with a distressed personality (type D; ie, the tendency to suppress negative emotions) were more likely to experience an event over time compared with non-type D patients (P=.00005). Cox proportional hazards analysis yielded LVEF of < or =30% (relative risk, 3.0; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 7.7; P=.02) and type D (relative risk, 4.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.9 to 11.8; P=.001) as independent predictors. Anxiety, anger, and depression did not add to the predictive power of type D; these negative emotions were highly correlated and reflected the personality domain of negative affectivity. Personality influences the clinical course of patients with a decreased LVEF. Emotional distress in these patients is unrelated to disease severity but reflects individual differences in personality. Clinical trials should take a broad view of the target of intervention; assessment of LVEF and personality may identify patients at risk.

Beyond valence in the perception of likelihood: the role of emotion specificity.

PubMed

DeSteno, D; Petty, R E; Wegener, D T; Rucker, D D

2000-03-01

Positive and negative moods have been shown to increase likelihood estimates of future events matching these states in valence (e.g., E. J. Johnson & A. Tversky, 1983). In the present article, 4 studies provide evidence that this congruency bias (a) is not limited to valence but functions in an emotion-specific manner, (b) derives from the informational value of emotions, and (c) is not the inevitable outcome of likelihood assessment under heightened emotion. Specifically, Study 1 demonstrates that sadness and anger, 2 distinct, negative emotions, differentially bias likelihood estimates of sad and angering events. Studies 2 and 3 replicate this finding in addition to supporting an emotion-as-information (cf. N. Schwarz & G. L. Clore, 1983), as opposed to a memory-based, mediating process for the bias. Finally, Study 4 shows that when the source of the emotion is salient, a reversal of the bias can occur given greater cognitive effort aimed at accuracy.

The influence of in-game emotions on basketball performance.

PubMed

Uphill, Mark; Groom, Ryan; Jones, Marc

2014-01-01

This study examined the influence of emotions on performance in basketball. Six female basketball players were videotaped in six games. Frequency of performance behaviours was recorded minute-by-minute and indices of successful (SGI) and unsuccessful (UGI) game involvement derived for each player. Post-game, players reported the intensity of experienced emotions (anger, anxiety, embarrassment, excitement and happiness), and the time of the eliciting incident. The only emotion revealed as a significant predictor of SGI was happiness; both anger and embarrassment were significant predictors of increased UGI. Consideration of individual player analyses suggests that there is variation in the magnitude of the influence of emotions on performance and the extent to which this influence was helpful or harmful to performance. The study provides evidence that emotions are associated with changes in game behaviours in competition. Implications for further research examining the emotion-performance relationship are discussed.

[Coupling of brain oscillatory systems with cognitive (experience and valence) and physiological (cardiovascular reactivity) components of emotion].

PubMed

Aftanas, L I; Reva, N V; Pavlov, S V; Korenek, V V; Brak, I V

2014-02-01

We investigated the coupling of EEG oscillators with cognitive (experience and valence) and physiological (cardiovascular reactivity) components of emotion. Emotions of anger and joy were evoked in healthy males (n = 49) using a guided imagery method, multichannel EEG and cardiovascular reactivity (Finometer) were simultaneously recorded. Correlational analysis revealed that specially distributed EEG oscillators seem to be selectively involved into cognitive (experience and valence) and physiological (cardiovascular reactivity) components of emotional responding. We showed that low theta (4-6 Hz) activity from medial and lateral frontal cortex of the right hemisphere predominantly correlated with the anger experience, high alpha (10-12 and 12-14 Hz) and gamma (30-45 Hz) activity from central-parieto-occipital regions of the left hemisphere--with cardiovascular reactivity to anger and joy, gamma-activity (30-45 Hz) from the left hemisphere in parietal areas--with cardiovascular reactivity to joy. The findings suggest that specially distributed neuronal networks oscillating at different frequencies may be regarded as a putative neurobiological mechanism coordination dynamical balance between cognitive and physiological components of emotion as well as psycho-neuro-somatic relationships within the mind-brain-body system.

Tryptophan depletion decreases the recognition of fear in female volunteers.

PubMed

Harmer, C J; Rogers, R D; Tunbridge, E; Cowen, P J; Goodwin, G M

2003-06-01

Serotonergic processes have been implicated in the modulation of fear conditioning in humans, postulated to occur at the level of the amygdala. The processing of other fear-relevant cues, such as facial expressions, has also been associated with amygdala function, but an effect of serotonin depletion on these processes has not been assessed. The present study investigated the effects of reducing serotonin function, using acute tryptophan depletion, on the recognition of basic facial expressions of emotions in healthy male and female volunteers. A double-blind between-groups design was used, with volunteers being randomly allocated to receive an amino acid drink specifically lacking tryptophan or a control mixture containing a balanced mixture of these amino acids. Participants were given a facial expression recognition task 5 h after drink administration. This task featured examples of six basic emotions (fear, anger, disgust, surprise, sadness and happiness) that had been morphed between each full emotion and neutral in 10% steps. As a control, volunteers were given a famous face classification task matched in terms of response selection and difficulty level. Tryptophan depletion significantly impaired the recognition of fearful facial expressions in female, but not male, volunteers. This was specific since recognition of other basic emotions was comparable in the two groups. There was also no effect of tryptophan depletion on the classification of famous faces or on subjective state ratings of mood or anxiety. These results confirm a role for serotonin in the processing of fear related cues, and in line with previous findings also suggest greater effects of tryptophan depletion in female volunteers. Although acute tryptophan depletion does not typically affect mood in healthy subjects, the present results suggest that subtle changes in the processing of emotional material may occur with this manipulation of serotonin function.

Designing Emotionally Sound Instruction: The FEASP-Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Astleitner, Hermann

2000-01-01

Presents strategies for making instruction more emotionally sound based on the FEASP (fear, envy, anger, sympathy, pleasure) approach. Highlights include the roles of emotions in cognitive instructional design, in motivational design of instruction, in affective education, and in emotional education; and a framework for Emotional Design of…

Feeling angry and acting angry: different effects of autonomy-connectedness in boys and girls.

PubMed

Karreman, Annemiek; Bekker, Marrie H J

2012-04-01

This study examined effects of the autonomy-connectedness components sensitivity to others, self-awareness and capacity for managing new situations on anger experience versus anger expression in adolescent boys and girls. One hundred thirty-one high school students were randomly assigned to an anger-inducing or neutral condition using the Dictator Game. Whereas after anger induction boys experienced and expressed anger independent of autonomy-connectedness, girls' anger experience depended on the level of sensitivity to others: girls experienced increased anger only when they scored high on sensitivity to others. However, girls' expression of anger did not depend on the level of sensitivity to others. Effects of self-awareness and capacity for managing new situations were found when anger was not induced. This study contributed to emotion regulation research by showing differences in anger experience and anger expression as a function of autonomy-connectedness in boys and girls. Copyright © 2011 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional self-control and dysregulation: A dual-process analysis of pathways to externalizing/internalizing symptomatology and positive well-being in younger adolescents.

PubMed

Wills, Thomas A; Simons, Jeffrey S; Sussman, Steve; Knight, Rebecca

2016-06-01

There is little knowledge about how emotional regulation contributes to vulnerability versus resilience to substance use disorder. With younger adolescents, we studied the pathways through which emotion regulation attributes are related to predisposing factors for disorder. A sample of 3561 adolescents (M age 12.5 years) was surveyed. Measures for emotional self-control (regulation of sadness and anger), emotional dysregulation (angerability, affective lability, and rumination about sadness or anger), and behavioral self-control (planfulness and problem solving) were obtained. A structural model was analyzed with regulation attributes related to six intermediate variables that are established risk or protective factors for adolescent substance use (e.g., academic involvement, stressful life events). Criterion variables were externalizing and internalizing symptomatology and positive well-being. Indirect pathways were found from emotional regulation to symptomatology through academic competence, stressful events, and deviance-prone attitudes and cognitions. Direct effects were also found: from emotional dysregulation to externalizing and internalizing symptomatology; emotional self-control to well-being; and behavioral self-control (inverse) to externalizing symptomatology. Emotional self-control and emotional dysregulation had independent effects and different types of pathways. Adolescents scoring high on emotional dysregulation are at risk for substance dependence because of more externalizing and internalizing symptomatology. Independently, youth with better behavioral and emotional self-control are at lower risk. This occurs partly through relations of regulation constructs to environmental variables that affect levels of symptomatology (e.g., stressful events, poor academic performance). Effects of emotion regulation were found at an early age, before the typical onset of substance disorder. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Emotional Self-Control and Dysregulation: A Dual-Process Analysis of Pathways to Externalizing/Internalizing Symptomatology and Positive Well-being in Younger Adolescents

PubMed Central

Wills, Thomas A.; Simons, Jeffrey S.; Sussman, Steve; Knight, Rebecca

2016-01-01

Objectives There is little knowledge about how emotional regulation contributes to vulnerability versus resilience to substance use disorder. With younger adolescents, we studied the pathways through which emotion regulation attributes are related to predisposing factors for disorder. Methods A sample of 3,561 adolescents (M age 12.5 years) was surveyed. Measures for emotional self-control (regulation of sadness and anger), emotional dysregulation (angerability, affective lability, and rumination about sadness or anger), and behavioral self-control (planfulness and problem solving) were obtained. A structural model was analyzed with regulation attributes related to six intermediate variables that are established risk or protective factors for adolescent substance use (e.g., academic involvement, stressful life events). Criterion variables were externalizing and internalizing symptomatology and positive well-being. Results Indirect pathways were found from emotional regulation to symptomatology through academic competence, stressful events, and deviance-prone attitudes and cognitions. Direct effects were also found: from emotional dysregulation to externalizing and internalizing symptomatology; emotional self-control to well-being; and behavioral self-control (inverse) to externalizing symptomatology. Emotional self-control and emotional dysregulation had independent effects and different types of pathways. Conclusions Adolescents scoring high on emotional dysregulation are at risk for substance dependence because of more externalizing and internalizing symptomatology. Independently, youth with better behavioral and emotional self-control are at lower risk. This occurs partly through relations of regulation constructs to environmental variables that affect levels of symptomatology (e.g., stressful events, poor academic performance). Effects of emotion regulation were found at an early age, before the typical onset of substance disorder. PMID:27306730

Anger biting. The hidden impulse.

PubMed

Walter, R D

1985-09-01

Based upon the paralogical reasoning of the anger-impulsive biter, this paper addresses the overload of emotional catharsis which can block a full memory of the biting event and suspend the logical infrastructure of rational behavior. In an effort to overcome these types of investigative difficulties, the paper suggests an approach to resolve dilemma through decompressing the emotional content into path ways of logical understanding. By offering a network of rationale hooks, the perpetrator becomes better equipped to acknowledge the deed.

Emotion Socialization Strategies of Mothers With Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: The Role of Maternal Emotion Regulation and Interactions With Infant Temperament.

PubMed

Kiel, Elizabeth J; Viana, Andres G; Tull, Matthew T; Gratz, Kim L

2017-06-01

Although the interpersonal difficulties associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are well established, their manifestations within the context of parent-child relationships remain understudied. The current study investigated the relation of maternal BPD symptoms to nonsupportive emotion socialization (i.e., the extent to which mothers punish or minimize their young children's displays of negative emotions), as well as the mediating role of maternal emotion regulation difficulties in this relation. The authors also investigated the moderating role of maternal BPD symptoms in the relation between infant temperamental anger and fear and punitive/minimizing emotion socialization. Using a sample of 99 mother-infant dyads, the authors found that maternal BPD symptoms were significantly related to punitive/minimizing emotion socialization and that maternal emotion regulation difficulties mediated this relation. Moreover, maternal BPD symptoms strengthened the association between mother-reported infant anger and punitive/minimizing emotion socialization. These results extend the growing literature on the impact of maternal BPD on child development.

Toward an implicit measure of emotions: ratings of abstract images reveal distinct emotional states.

PubMed

Bartoszek, Gregory; Cervone, Daniel

2017-11-01

Although implicit tests of positive and negative affect exist, implicit measures of distinct emotional states are scarce. Three experiments examined whether a novel implicit emotion-assessment task, the rating of emotion expressed in abstract images, would reveal distinct emotional states. In Experiment 1, participants exposed to a sadness-inducing story inferred more sadness, and less happiness, in abstract images. In Experiment 2, an anger-provoking interaction increased anger ratings. In Experiment 3, compared to neutral images, spider images increased fear ratings in spider-fearful participants but not in controls. In each experiment, the implicit task indicated elevated levels of the target emotion and did not indicate elevated levels of non-target negative emotions; the task thus differentiated among emotional states of the same valence. Correlations also supported the convergent and discriminant validity of the implicit task. Supporting the possibility that heuristic processes underlie the ratings, group differences were stronger among those who responded relatively quickly.

The Effects of Measuring Emotion: Physiological Reactions to Emotional Situations Depend on whether Someone Is Asking

PubMed Central

Kassam, Karim S.; Mendes, Wendy Berry

2013-01-01

Measurement effects exist throughout the sciences–the act of measuring often changes the properties of the observed. We suggest emotion research is no exception. The awareness and conscious assessment required by self-report of emotion may significantly alter emotional processes. In this study, participants engaged in a difficult math task designed to induce anger or shame while their cardiovascular responses were measured. Half of the participants were asked to report on their emotional states and appraise their feelings throughout the experiment, whereas the other half completed a control questionnaire. Among those in the anger condition, participants assigned to report on their emotions exhibited qualitatively different physiological responses from those who did not report. For participants in the shame condition, there were no significant differences in physiology based on the self-report manipulation. The study demonstrates that the simple act of reporting on an emotional state may have a substantial impact on the body’s reaction to an emotional situation. PMID:23785407

Cognitive and emotional differences between abusive and non-abusive fathers.

PubMed

Francis, Karen J; Wolfe, David A

2008-12-01

Abusive fathers perpetrate a substantial portion of child physical abuse. Despite this, little is known about how they differ from non-abusive fathers. This study compared a broad range of cognitive and affective factors between physically abusive and non-abusive fathers. Abusive (n=24) and non-abusive (n=25) fathers completed standard measures assessing their experience and expression of anger, mental health, parenting stress, and their empathy and perceptions of children's socio-emotional signals. Abusive fathers differed from comparisons on almost all constructs. They experienced more anger and were more likely to express that anger aggressively. They reported more mental health concerns (such as depression, hostility, and paranoid ideation), more stress in parenting, and significantly less empathy for their children. They were also more likely to perceive children's emotional expressions as depicting negative emotions, such as anger and disgust. Abusive fathers struggle with a myriad of difficulties that likely contribute to their problematic parenting. These difficulties are both inter- and intra-personal in nature. The findings suggest that abusive fathers require comprehensive assessment that includes mental health screening. Interventions should be selected carefully to target abusive fathers' high levels of negative affect and negative perceptions. Treatment strategies should address problems related to parenting style (e.g., managing stress and interpretation of children's socioemotional signals) as well as their personal adjustment (e.g., cognitive behavioral strategies for regulating affect and cognitive distortions).

Neural substrates underlying the tendency to accept anger-infused ultimatum offers during dynamic social interactions.

PubMed

Gilam, Gadi; Lin, Tamar; Raz, Gal; Azrielant, Shir; Fruchter, Eyal; Ariely, Dan; Hendler, Talma

2015-10-15

In managing our way through interpersonal conflict, anger might be crucial in determining whether the dispute escalates to aggressive behaviors or resolves cooperatively. The Ultimatum Game (UG) is a social decision-making paradigm that provides a framework for studying interpersonal conflict over division of monetary resources. Unfair monetary UG-offers elicit anger and while accepting them engages regulatory processes, rejecting them is regarded as an aggressive retribution. Ventro-medial prefrontal-cortex (vmPFC) activity has been shown to relate to idiosyncratic tendencies in accepting unfair offers possibly through its role in emotion regulation. Nevertheless, standard UG paradigms lack fundamental aspects of real-life social interactions in which one reacts to other people in a response contingent fashion. To uncover the neural substrates underlying the tendency to accept anger-infused ultimatum offers during dynamic social interactions, we incorporated on-line verbal negotiations with an obnoxious partner in a repeated-UG during fMRI scanning. We hypothesized that vmPFC activity will differentiate between individuals with high or low monetary gains accumulated throughout the game and reflect a divergence in the associated emotional experience. We found that as individuals gained more money, they reported less anger but also more positive feelings and had slower sympathetic response. In addition, high-gain individuals had increased vmPFC activity, but also decreased brainstem activity, which possibly reflected the locus coeruleus. During the more angering unfair offers, these individuals had increased dorsal-posterior Insula (dpI) activity which functionally coupled to the medial-thalamus (mT). Finally, both vmPFC activity and dpI-mT connectivity contributed to increased gain, possibly by modulating the ongoing subjective emotional experience. These ecologically valid findings point towards a neural mechanism that might nurture pro-social interactions by modulating an individual's dynamic emotional experience. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotional flooding and hostile discipline in the families of toddlers with disruptive behavior problems.

PubMed

Mence, Melanie; Hawes, David J; Wedgwood, Lucinda; Morgan, Susan; Barnett, Bryanne; Kohlhoff, Jane; Hunt, Caroline

2014-02-01

This study examined the relationship between negative parenting practices and dysfunction in parents' cognitive processing of child affect cues in families of toddlers with disruptive behavior problems. This dysfunction comprised a bias toward the misclassification of child affect as anger (affect appraisal bias) and parents' proneness to emotional flooding (Gottman, 1991, 1993). Participants were families of toddlers (n = 82; 53% male; aged 18-48 months) referred to a tertiary-level health service for the treatment of disruptive behavior problems. Affect appraisal bias was indexed in terms of the discrepancy between rates of child anger coded from video recordings of parent-child interactions and rates of child anger estimated by parents immediately after these interactions. Parenting practices and emotional flooding were assessed using the Parenting Scale and the Parental Flooding Scale. Both hostile and overreactive discipline were positively associated with severity of disruptive behavior problems, however only hostile discipline was associated with the biased appraisal of child affect and emotional flooding. Emotional flooding was found to be a unique predictor of hostile discipline, independent of covariates including the severity of disruptive behavior problems. Variance in hostile discipline was further explained by the interaction between emotional flooding and affect appraisal bias. Emotional flooding appears to be particularly proximal to hostile discipline in the families of toddlers with disruptive behavior problems, consistent with evidence previously reported for nonclinical families.

The Impact of Stress on Odor Perception.

PubMed

Hoenen, Matthias; Wolf, Oliver T; Pause, Bettina M

2017-01-01

The olfactory system and emotional systems are highly intervened and share common neuronal structures. The current study investigates whether emotional (e.g., anger and fear) and physiological (saliva cortisol) stress responses are associated with odor identification ability and hedonic odor judgments (intensity, pleasantness, and unpleasantness). Nineteen men participated in the modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control session (cycling on a stationary bike). The physiological arousal was similar in both sessions. In each session, participants' odor identification score was assessed using the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test, and their transient mood was recorded on the dimensions of valence, arousal, anger, and anxiety. Multivariate regression analyses show that an increase of cortisol in the TSST session (as compared with the control session) is associated with better odor identification performance (β = .491) and higher odor intensity ratings (β = .562). However, increased anger in the TSST session (as compared with the control session) is associated with lower odor identification performance (β = -.482). The study shows divergent effects of the emotional and the physiological stress responses, indicating that an increase of cortisol is associated with better odor identification performance, whereas increased anger is associated with poorer odor identification performance.

Anger, disgust, and presumption of harm as reactions to taboo-breaking behaviors.

PubMed

Gutierrez, Roberto; Giner-Sorolla, Roger

2007-11-01

Three experiments investigated the relationship between the presumption of harm in harmfree violations of creatural norms (taboos) and the moral emotions of anger and disgust. In Experiment 1, participants made a presumption of harm to others from taboo violations, even in conditions described as harmless and not involving other people; this presumption was predicted by anger and not disgust. Experiment 2 manipulated taboo violation and included a cognitive load task to clarify the post hoc nature of presumption of harm. Experiment 3 was similar but more accurately measured presumed harm. In Experiments 2 and 3, only without load was symbolic harm presumed, indicating its post hoc function to justify moral anger, which was not affected by load. In general, manipulations of harmfulness to others predicted moral anger better than moral disgust, whereas manipulations of taboo predicted disgust better. The presumption of harm was found on measures of symbolic rather than actual harm when a choice existed. These studies clarify understanding of the relationship between emotions and their justification when people consider victimless, offensive acts.

Effects of Habitual Anger on Employees’ Behavior during Organizational Change

PubMed Central

Bönigk, Mareike; Steffgen, Georges

2013-01-01

Organizational change is a particularly emotional event for those being confronted with it. Anger is a frequently experienced emotion under these conditions. This study analyses the influence of employees’ habitual anger reactions on their reported behavior during organizational change. It was explored whether anger reactions conducive to recovering or increasing individual well-being will enhance the likelihood of functional change behavior. Dysfunctional regulation strategies in terms of individual well-being are expected to decrease the likelihood of functional change behavior—mediated by the commitment to change. Four hundred and twelve employees of different organizations in Luxembourg undergoing organizational change participated in the study. Findings indicate that the anger regulation strategy venting, and humor increase the likelihood of deviant resistance to change. Downplaying the incident’s negative impact and feedback increase the likelihood of active support for change. The mediating effect of commitment to change has been found for humor and submission. The empirical findings suggest that a differentiated conceptualization of resistance to change is required. Specific implications for practical change management and for future research are discussed. PMID:24287849

Effects of habitual anger on employees' behavior during organizational change.

PubMed

Bönigk, Mareike; Steffgen, Georges

2013-11-25

Organizational change is a particularly emotional event for those being confronted with it. Anger is a frequently experienced emotion under these conditions. This study analyses the influence of employees' habitual anger reactions on their reported behavior during organizational change. It was explored whether anger reactions conducive to recovering or increasing individual well-being will enhance the likelihood of functional change behavior. Dysfunctional regulation strategies in terms of individual well-being are expected to decrease the likelihood of functional change behavior-mediated by the commitment to change. Four hundred and twelve employees of different organizations in Luxembourg undergoing organizational change participated in the study. Findings indicate that the anger regulation strategy venting, and humor increase the likelihood of deviant resistance to change. Downplaying the incident's negative impact and feedback increase the likelihood of active support for change. The mediating effect of commitment to change has been found for humor and submission. The empirical findings suggest that a differentiated conceptualization of resistance to change is required. Specific implications for practical change management and for future research are discussed.

Association Between Parenting Style and Socio-Emotional and Academic Functioning in Children With and Without ADHD: A Community-Based Study.

PubMed

Bhide, Sampada; Sciberras, Emma; Anderson, Vicki; Hazell, Philip; Nicholson, Jan M

2016-07-28

In a community-based study, we examined parenting style and its relationship to functioning in 6- to 8-year-old children (n = 391; 66.2% male) with ADHD (n = 179), compared with non-ADHD controls (n = 212). Parenting style was assessed using parent-reported (93.5% female) measures of warmth, consistency, and anger. Child socio-emotional and academic functioning was measured via parent- and teacher-reported scales, and direct academic assessment. Parents reported less consistency and more anger in the ADHD group compared with non-ADHD controls, with no differences in warmth. Parenting warmth, consistency, and anger were associated with parent-reported aspects of socio-emotional functioning for children with ADHD and non-ADHD controls, after adjusting for socio-demographic variables, externalizing comorbidities, and ADHD symptom severity. Parenting style was no longer related to academic functioning and most teacher-reported outcomes after adjustment. Generic parenting interventions that promote warm, consistent, and calm parenting may help alleviate socio-emotional impairments in children with ADHD. © The Author(s) 2016.

Harsh Parenting and Adolescent Health: A Longitudinal Analysis with Genetic Moderation

PubMed Central

Brody, Gene H.; Yu, Tianyi; Beach, Steven R. H.; Kogan, Steven M.; Windle, Michael; Philibert, Robert A.

2015-01-01

Objective This study was designed to examine the prospective relations of harsh parenting during preadolescence, anger across adolescence, and a health phenotype at late adolescence among African American youths living in the rural South. A second purpose was to determine whether, for genetic reasons, some youths will be more sensitive than others to a harsh parenting to anger to poor health pathway. Methods Participants were 368 youths (age 11.2 at the first assessment) who provided data on receipt of harsh parenting during preadolescence (ages 11 to 13), anger across adolescence (ages 16 to 18), and a health phenotype consisting of C Reactive Protein, depressive symptoms, and health problems at age 19. Youths were genotyped at the 5-HTTLPR at age 16. Results The data analysis revealed that (a) harsher parenting was associated positively across time with anger and poor health, (b) anger across adolescence also was associated positively across time with poor health, (c) anger served as a mediator connecting harsh parenting and poor health, and (d) the harsh parenting to anger to poor health pathway was significant only for youths carrying one or two copies of a short allele at the 5-HTTLPR. Conclusions These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that harsh parent-child interactions presage health through effects on emotion regulation, particularly anger. This mediational pathway pertained only to youths carrying a gene that confers sensitivity and reactivity to harsh family processes and the negative emotional states they occasion. PMID:23668852

Harsh parenting and adolescent health: a longitudinal analysis with genetic moderation.

PubMed

Brody, Gene H; Yu, Tianyi; Beach, Steven R H; Kogan, Steven M; Windle, Michael; Philibert, Robert A

2014-05-01

This study was designed to examine the prospective relations of harsh parenting during preadolescence, anger across adolescence, and a health phenotype at late adolescence among African American youths living in the rural South. A second purpose was to determine whether, for genetic reasons, some youths will be more sensitive than others to a harsh parenting to anger to poor health pathway. Participants were 368 youths (age 11.2 at the first assessment) who provided data on receipt of harsh parenting during preadolescence (ages 11 to 13), anger across adolescence (ages 16 to 18), and a health phenotype consisting of C Reactive Protein, depressive symptoms, and health problems at age 19. Youths were genotyped at the 5-HTTLPR at age 16. The data analysis revealed that (a) harsher parenting was associated positively across time with anger and poor health, (b) anger across adolescence also was associated positively across time with poor health, (c) anger served as a mediator connecting harsh parenting and poor health, and (d) the harsh parenting to anger to poor health pathway was significant only for youths carrying one or two copies of a short allele at the 5-HTTLPR. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that harsh parent-child interactions presage health through effects on emotion regulation, particularly anger. This mediational pathway pertained only to youths carrying a gene that confers sensitivity and reactivity to harsh family processes and the negative emotional states they occasion. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Are there differential deficits in facial emotion recognition between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia? A signal detection analysis.

PubMed

Huang, Charles Lung-Cheng; Hsiao, Sigmund; Hwu, Hai-Gwo; Howng, Shen-Long

2013-10-30

This study assessed facial emotion recognition abilities in subjects with paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia (NPS) using signal detection theory. We explore the differential deficits in facial emotion recognition in 44 paranoid patients with schizophrenia (PS) and 30 non-paranoid patients with schizophrenia (NPS), compared to 80 healthy controls. We used morphed faces with different intensities of emotion and computed the sensitivity index (d') of each emotion. The results showed that performance differed between the schizophrenia and healthy controls groups in the recognition of both negative and positive affects. The PS group performed worse than the healthy controls group but better than the NPS group in overall performance. Performance differed between the NPS and healthy controls groups in the recognition of all basic emotions and neutral faces; between the PS and healthy controls groups in the recognition of angry faces; and between the PS and NPS groups in the recognition of happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, and neutral affects. The facial emotion recognition impairment in schizophrenia may reflect a generalized deficit rather than a negative-emotion specific deficit. The PS group performed worse than the control group, but better than the NPS group in facial expression recognition, with differential deficits between PS and NPS patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Cardiovascular health in women: the role of anger and its expression].

PubMed

Pérez-García, Ana M; Sanjuán, Pilar; Rueda, Beatriz; Ruiz, M Anleles

2011-11-01

The relationships between anger expression (in, out, and control) and cardiovascular health (emotional distress, cardiovascular symptoms reported, and preventive health behaviors) were analyzed in 327 women (range 17-60 years). The same criteria (N= 218), as well as blood pressure (BP) registered in medical checkups (N= 90) were recorded one year later. Four groups according to anger-in and anger-control scores, going from the most hostile (high anger-in and low anger-control) to the least hostile (low anger-in and high anger-control) were considered. The results indicated that the most hostile group, with the least adaptive anger expression, presented worst cardiovascular health than the other three groups, at both temporal moments. Furthermore, the presence of women with pathological BP levels was higher in the groups of high anger-in. These data ratify the role of anger expression, especially its repression (anger-in) and the lack of adequate canalization or control in women's cardiovascular health from a prospective design. Appropriate management of anger feelings and the practice of preventive health behaviors can protect women from cardiovascular problems.

Developmental changes in emotion recognition from full-light and point-light displays of body movement.

PubMed

Ross, Patrick D; Polson, Louise; Grosbras, Marie-Hélène

2012-01-01

To date, research on the development of emotion recognition has been dominated by studies on facial expression interpretation; very little is known about children's ability to recognize affective meaning from body movements. In the present study, we acquired simultaneous video and motion capture recordings of two actors portraying four basic emotions (Happiness Sadness, Fear and Anger). One hundred and seven primary and secondary school children (aged 4-17) and 14 adult volunteers participated in the study. Each participant viewed the full-light and point-light video clips and was asked to make a forced-choice as to which emotion was being portrayed. As a group, children performed worse than adults for both point-light and full-light conditions. Linear regression showed that both age and lighting condition were significant predictors of performance in children. Using piecewise regression, we found that a bilinear model with a steep improvement in performance until 8.5 years of age, followed by a much slower improvement rate through late childhood and adolescence best explained the data. These findings confirm that, like for facial expression, adolescents' recognition of basic emotions from body language is not fully mature and seems to follow a non-linear development. This is in line with observations of non-linear developmental trajectories for different aspects of human stimuli processing (voices and faces), perhaps suggesting a shift from one perceptual or cognitive strategy to another during adolescence. These results have important implications to understanding the maturation of social cognition.

Students' Emotions during Homework: Structures, Self-Concept Antecedents, and Achievement Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goetz, Thomas; Nett, Ulrike E.; Martiny, Sarah E.; Hall, Nathan C.; Pekrun, Reinhard; Dettmers, Swantje; Trautwein, Ulrich

2012-01-01

In the present study (N = 553; 8th and 11th grade students; 52% female) we investigated students' enjoyment, pride, anxiety, anger, and boredom while completing homework (homework emotions), and contrasted these emotions with those experienced during class (classroom emotions). Both homework emotions and classroom emotions were assessed separately…

Mother-Child Conversations about Emotions: Linkages to Child Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garner, Pamela W.; Dunsmore, Julie C.; Southam-Gerrow, Michael

2008-01-01

We examined associations of maternal and child emotional discourse and child emotion knowledge with children's behavioral competence. Eighty-five upper middle-income, mostly White preschoolers and mothers completed a home-based bookreading task to assess discourse about emotions. Children's anger perception bias and emotion situation knowledge…

The impact of angry rumination on anger-primed cognitive control.

PubMed

Lievaart, Marien; Huijding, Jorg; van der Veen, Frederik M; Hovens, Johannes E; Franken, Ingmar H A

2017-03-01

Recent research suggests that angry rumination augments aggressive behavior by depleting self-control resources. Yet, few studies have been conducted to empirically support this proposal. In the present study, we therefore sought to investigate the effects of angry rumination, relative to distraction, on self-reported anger and a behavioral indicator of self-control. Seventy-two participants recalled and imagined an anger-inducing autobiographical memory and were instructed to engage in either angry rumination (n = 37) or distraction (n = 35). Following these emotion regulation instructions, participants performed an affective Go/NoGo task in order to assess behavioral self-control along with several questionnaires to assess anger related constructs. As expected, results revealed that angry rumination augmented anger, whereas anger decreased in the distraction condition. Contrary to predictions, we found no differences between both groups in performance on the affective Go/NoGo task. A potential limitation is we instructed our participants on how to regulate their emotions rather than letting angry rumination occur spontaneously. The findings indicate that whereas angry rumination results in heightened anger, it does not seem to result in lower self-control as measured with a behavioral task that requires cognitive control. More research is needed to test the boundary conditions regarding the role of self-control in understanding rumination-induced aggression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Prediction of Toddlers’ Expressive Language From Maternal Sensitivity And Toddlers’ Anger Expressions: A Developmental Perspective

PubMed Central

Nozadi, Sara S; Spinrad, Tracy L; Eisenberg, Nancy; Bolnick, Rebecca; Eggum-Wilkens, Natalie. D; Smith, Cynthia L; Gaertner, Bridget; Kupfer, Anne; Sallquist, Julie

2013-01-01

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children’s observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child’s developmental stage and sex. PMID:23911594

Inconsistent emotion recognition deficits across stimulus modalities in Huntington׳s disease.

PubMed

Rees, Elin M; Farmer, Ruth; Cole, James H; Henley, Susie M D; Sprengelmeyer, Reiner; Frost, Chris; Scahill, Rachael I; Hobbs, Nicola Z; Tabrizi, Sarah J

2014-11-01

Recognition of negative emotions is impaired in Huntington׳s Disease (HD). It is unclear whether these emotion-specific problems are driven by dissociable cognitive deficits, emotion complexity, test cue difficulty, or visuoperceptual impairments. This study set out to further characterise emotion recognition in HD by comparing patterns of deficits across stimulus modalities; notably including for the first time in HD, the more ecologically and clinically relevant modality of film clips portraying dynamic facial expressions. Fifteen early HD and 17 control participants were tested on emotion recognition from static facial photographs, non-verbal vocal expressions and one second dynamic film clips, all depicting different emotions. Statistically significant evidence of impairment of anger, disgust and fear recognition was seen in HD participants compared with healthy controls across multiple stimulus modalities. The extent of the impairment, as measured by the difference in the number of errors made between HD participants and controls, differed according to the combination of emotion and modality (p=0.013, interaction test). The largest between-group difference was seen in the recognition of anger from film clips. Consistent with previous reports, anger, disgust and fear were the most poorly recognised emotions by the HD group. This impairment did not appear to be due to task demands or expression complexity as the pattern of between-group differences did not correspond to the pattern of errors made by either group; implicating emotion-specific cognitive processing pathology. There was however evidence that the extent of emotion recognition deficits significantly differed between stimulus modalities. The implications in terms of designing future tests of emotion recognition and care giving are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Dark Side of Emotion in the Classroom: Emotional Processes as Mediators of Teacher Communication Behaviors and Student Negative Emotions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazer, Joseph P.; McKenna-Buchanan, Timothy P.; Quinlan, Margaret M.; Titsworth, Scott

2014-01-01

Based on emotional response theory (ERT), recent researchers have observed connections between teachers' communication behaviors and students' emotional reactions. In the present study, we further elaborated ERT by exploring the effects of teacher communication behaviors and emotional processes on discrete negative emotions, including anger,…

The effect of stress and personality on dangerous driving behavior among Chinese drivers.

PubMed

Ge, Yan; Qu, Weina; Jiang, Caihong; Du, Feng; Sun, Xianghong; Zhang, Kan

2014-12-01

The relationship between stress and road safety has been studied for many years, but the effect of global stress and its joint effect with personality on driving behavior have received little attention in previous studies. This study aimed to elucidate the impact of global stress and various personality traits on driving behavior. 242 drivers completed the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI), and several personality trait scales related to anger, sensation seeking, and altruism. The results showed that perceived stress and sensation seeking were significantly correlated with the four subcategories of dangerous driving behavior, namely, negative cognitive/emotional driving (NCED), aggressive driving (AD), risky driving (RD), and drunk driving (DD). Moreover, anger was positively correlated with negative cognitive/emotional driving, aggressive driving, and risky driving, and altruism was negatively correlated with aggressive driving and drunk driving. Hierarchical multiple regressions were applied to analyze the mediating effect of personality traits, and the results showed that anger mediated the relationship between stress and dangerous driving behavior and that this mediating role was especially strong for negative cognitive/emotional driving and aggressive driving. Collectively, the results showed that stress is an important factor that can affect people's driving behavior but that personality traits mediate the effect of stress on driving behavior. The findings from this study regarding the relationship among stress, anger, and dangerous driving behavior could be applied in the development of intervention programs for stress and anger management in order to improve drivers' ability to manage emotional thoughts and adjust their behavior on the road. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fear, anger, and risk.

PubMed

Lerner, J S; Keltner, D

2001-07-01

Drawing on an appraisal-tendency framework (J. S. Lerner & D. Keltner, 2000), the authors predicted and found that fear and anger have opposite effects on risk perception. Whereas fearful people expressed pessimistic risk estimates and risk-averse choices, angry people expressed optimistic risk estimates and risk-seeking choices. These opposing patterns emerged for naturally occurring and experimentally induced fear and anger. Moreover, estimates of angry people more closely resembled those of happy people than those of fearful people. Consistent with predictions, appraisal tendencies accounted for these effects: Appraisals of certainty and control moderated and (in the case of control) mediated the emotion effects. As a complement to studies that link affective valence to judgment outcomes, the present studies highlight multiple benefits of studying specific emotions.

A longitudinal analysis of discrete negative emotions and health-services use in elderly individuals.

PubMed

McKeen, Nancy A; Chipperfield, Judith G; Campbell, Darren W

2004-01-01

To test the hypothesis that everyday, discrete negative emotions-anger, frustration, sadness, and fear-relate to health-service use in later life. Community-dwelling adults (n = 345) ages 72 to 99 were interviewed about the frequency of recently experienced emotions. Physician visits and hospital admissions in the subsequent 2 years were outcomes. Covariates included prior use of health services, chronic illness, functional status, and demographics. Age, education, and gender moderated relations between negative emotions and health care use. More frustration was associated with fewer physician visits among older individuals. Sadness was associated with more hospital admissions for women. Among those with more education, frequent anger was associated with more physician visits. Projected effects of negative emotions resulted in increases in health-service use, ranging from 18% to 33%. The interactions indicate the importance of negative emotions and the larger social and developmental context in health care services use among elderly individuals.

The role of culture in parents' socialization of children's emotional development.

PubMed

Bowie, Bonnie H; Carrère, Sybil; Cooke, Cheryl; Valdivia, Guadalupe; McAllister, Brittany; Doohan, Eve-Anne

2013-04-01

Parents' emotion coaching of children and modeling of effective emotional responses are associated with children's positive emotional development. However, much of the research in this area has been with European American families. This study examined parents' self-reports about their emotion regulation patterns and coaching their children about emotions, across three racial and ethnic groups (African American, European American, and Multiracial), to determine how well these parental behaviors predicted their children's self-reports of depressive and anxiety symptoms 18 to 24 months later (N = 99). For the African American families, a higher level of coaching about anger and sadness by mothers was linked with lower depressive symptoms in their children. A higher level of anger coaching by fathers within the Multiracial group was also associated with lower anxiety and depressive symptoms. This study supports the importance of cultural values, within racial and ethnic groups, in parenting approaches associated with children's mental health outcomes.

Spiritual Struggle Among Patients Seeking Treatment for Chronic Headaches: Anger and Protest Behaviors Toward God.

PubMed

Exline, Julie J; Krause, Steven J; Broer, Karen A

2016-10-01

This study examined anger and protest behaviors toward God among 80 US adults seeking treatment for chronic headaches (66 women, 14 men; 71 completed treatment). Measures were administered before and after an intensive 3-week outpatient treatment program. At both times, anger and protest toward God correlated with lower pain acceptance, more emotional distress, and greater perceived disability. However, when considered simultaneously, anger predicted sustained distress, whereas protest behaviors (e.g., complaining, questioning, arguing) predicted both reduced distress and an increased sense of meaning. These findings suggest the utility of distinguishing between anger toward God and behaviors suggesting assertiveness toward God.

Profiles of observed infant anger predict preschool behavior problems: Moderation by life stress

PubMed Central

Brooker, Rebecca J.; Buss, Kristin A.; Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn; Aksan, Nazan; Davidson, Richard J.; Goldsmith, H. Hill

2014-01-01

Using both traditional composites and novel profiles of anger, we examined associations between infant anger and preschool behavior problems in a large, longitudinal data set (N = 966). We also tested the role of life stress as a moderator of the link between early anger and the development of behavior problems. Although traditional measures of anger were largely unrelated to later behavior problems, profiles of anger that dissociated typical from atypical development predicted behavior problems during preschool. Moreover, the relation between infant anger profiles and preschool behavior problems was moderated such that, when early life stress was low, infants with atypical profiles of early anger showed more preschool behavior problems than did infants with normative anger profiles. However, when early life stress was high, infants with atypical and normative profiles of infant anger did not differ in preschool behavior problems. We conclude that a discrete emotions approach including latent profile analysis is useful for elucidating biological and environmental developmental pathways to early problem behaviors. PMID:25151247

Nencki Affective Picture System: Cross-Cultural Study in Europe and Iran

PubMed Central

Riegel, Monika; Moslehi, Abnoos; Michałowski, Jarosław M.; Żurawski, Łukasz; Horvat, Marko; Wypych, Marek; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Marchewka, Artur

2017-01-01

Although emotions have been assumed conventionally to be universal, recent studies have suggested that various aspects of emotions may be mediated by cultural background. The purpose of our research was to test these contradictory views, in the case of the subjective evaluation of visual affective stimuli. We also sought to validate the recently introduced Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS) database on a different cultural group. Since there has been, to date, no attempt to compare the emotions of a culturally distinct sample of Iranians with those of Europeans, subjective ratings were collected from 40 Iranians and 39 Europeans. Each cultural group was asked separately to provide normative affective ratings and classify pictures according to discrete emotions. The results were analyzed to identify cultural differences in the ratings of individual images. One hundred and seventy NAPS pictures were rated with regard to the intensity of the basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust) they elicited, as well as in terms of affective dimensions (valence and arousal). Contrary to previous studies using the International Affective Picture System, our results for Europeans and Iranians show that neither the ratings for affective dimensions nor for basic emotions differed across cultural groups. In both cultural groups, the relationship between valence and arousal ratings could be best described by a classical boomerang-shaped function. However, the content of the pictures (animals, faces, landscapes, objects, or people) had a significant effect on the ratings for valence and arousal. These findings indicate that further studies in cross-cultural affective research should control for the content of stimuli. PMID:28316576

Nencki Affective Picture System: Cross-Cultural Study in Europe and Iran.

PubMed

Riegel, Monika; Moslehi, Abnoos; Michałowski, Jarosław M; Żurawski, Łukasz; Horvat, Marko; Wypych, Marek; Jednoróg, Katarzyna; Marchewka, Artur

2017-01-01

Although emotions have been assumed conventionally to be universal, recent studies have suggested that various aspects of emotions may be mediated by cultural background. The purpose of our research was to test these contradictory views, in the case of the subjective evaluation of visual affective stimuli. We also sought to validate the recently introduced Nencki Affective Picture System (NAPS) database on a different cultural group. Since there has been, to date, no attempt to compare the emotions of a culturally distinct sample of Iranians with those of Europeans, subjective ratings were collected from 40 Iranians and 39 Europeans. Each cultural group was asked separately to provide normative affective ratings and classify pictures according to discrete emotions. The results were analyzed to identify cultural differences in the ratings of individual images. One hundred and seventy NAPS pictures were rated with regard to the intensity of the basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust) they elicited, as well as in terms of affective dimensions (valence and arousal). Contrary to previous studies using the International Affective Picture System, our results for Europeans and Iranians show that neither the ratings for affective dimensions nor for basic emotions differed across cultural groups. In both cultural groups, the relationship between valence and arousal ratings could be best described by a classical boomerang-shaped function. However, the content of the pictures (animals, faces, landscapes, objects, or people) had a significant effect on the ratings for valence and arousal. These findings indicate that further studies in cross-cultural affective research should control for the content of stimuli.

Deriving meaning from others’ emotions: attribution, appraisal, and the use of emotions as social information

PubMed Central

van Doorn, Evert A.; van Kleef, Gerben A.; van der Pligt, Joop

2015-01-01

Emotional expressions constitute a rich source of information. Integrating theorizing on attribution, appraisal processes, and the use of emotions as social information, we examined how emotional expressions influence attributions of agency and responsibility under conditions of ambiguity. Three vignette studies involving different scenarios indicate that participants used information about others’ emotional expressions to make sense of ambiguous social situations. Expressions of regret fueled inferences that the expresser was responsible for an adverse situation, whereas expressions of anger fueled inferences that someone else was responsible. Also, expressions of anger were interpreted as a sign of injustice, and expressions of disappointment increased prosocial intentions (i.e., to help the expresser). The results show that emotional expressions can help people understand ambiguous social situations by informing attributions that correspond with each emotion’s associated appraisal structures. The findings advance understanding of the ways in which emotional expressions help individuals understand and coordinate social life. PMID:26284001

Recognition of facial expressions of mixed emotions in school-age children exposed to terrorism.

PubMed

Scrimin, Sara; Moscardino, Ughetta; Capello, Fabia; Altoè, Gianmarco; Axia, Giovanna

2009-09-01

This exploratory study aims at investigating the effects of terrorism on children's ability to recognize emotions. A sample of 101 exposed and 102 nonexposed children (mean age = 11 years), balanced for age and gender, were assessed 20 months after a terrorist attack in Beslan, Russia. Two trials controlled for children's ability to match a facial emotional stimulus with an emotional label and their ability to match an emotional label with an emotional context. The experimental trial evaluated the relation between exposure to terrorism and children's free labeling of mixed emotion facial stimuli created by morphing between 2 prototypical emotions. Repeated measures analyses of covariance revealed that exposed children correctly recognized pure emotions. Four log-linear models were performed to explore the association between exposure group and category of answer given in response to different mixed emotion facial stimuli. Model parameters indicated that, compared with nonexposed children, exposed children (a) labeled facial expressions containing anger and sadness significantly more often than expected as anger, and (b) produced fewer correct answers in response to stimuli containing sadness as a target emotion.

BESST (Bochum Emotional Stimulus Set)--a pilot validation study of a stimulus set containing emotional bodies and faces from frontal and averted views.

PubMed

Thoma, Patrizia; Soria Bauser, Denise; Suchan, Boris

2013-08-30

This article introduces the freely available Bochum Emotional Stimulus Set (BESST), which contains pictures of bodies and faces depicting either a neutral expression or one of the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise), presented from two different perspectives (0° frontal view vs. camera averted by 45° to the left). The set comprises 565 frontal view and 564 averted view pictures of real-life bodies with masked facial expressions and 560 frontal and 560 averted view faces which were synthetically created using the FaceGen 3.5 Modeller. All stimuli were validated in terms of categorization accuracy and the perceived naturalness of the expression. Additionally, each facial stimulus was morphed into three age versions (20/40/60 years). The results show high recognition of the intended facial expressions, even under speeded forced-choice conditions, as corresponds to common experimental settings. The average naturalness ratings for the stimuli range between medium and high. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anger as Seeing Red: Perceptual Sources of Evidence

PubMed Central

Fetterman, Adam K.; Robinson, Michael D.; Gordon, Robert D.; Elliot, Andrew J.

2012-01-01

A class of metaphors links the experience of anger to perceptions of redness. Whether such metaphors have significant implications for understanding perception is not known. In Experiment 1, anger (versus sadness) concepts were primed and it was found that priming anger concepts led individuals to be more likely to perceive the color red. In Experiment 2, anger states were directly manipulated, and it was found that evoking anger led individuals to be more likely to perceive red. Both experiments showed that the observed effects were independent of the actual color presented. These findings extend the New Look, perceptual, metaphoric, and social cognitive literatures. Most importantly, the results suggest that emotion representation processes of a metaphoric type can be extended to the perceptual realm. PMID:22822418

Anger as Seeing Red: Perceptual Sources of Evidence.

PubMed

Fetterman, Adam K; Robinson, Michael D; Gordon, Robert D; Elliot, Andrew J

2011-05-01

A class of metaphors links the experience of anger to perceptions of redness. Whether such metaphors have significant implications for understanding perception is not known. In Experiment 1, anger (versus sadness) concepts were primed and it was found that priming anger concepts led individuals to be more likely to perceive the color red. In Experiment 2, anger states were directly manipulated, and it was found that evoking anger led individuals to be more likely to perceive red. Both experiments showed that the observed effects were independent of the actual color presented. These findings extend the New Look, perceptual, metaphoric, and social cognitive literatures. Most importantly, the results suggest that emotion representation processes of a metaphoric type can be extended to the perceptual realm.

Anger Rumination Scale: Validation in Mexico.

PubMed

Ortega Andrade, Norma; Alcázar-Olán, Raúl; Matías, Oscar Mariano; Rivera Guerrero, Ana; Domínguez Espinosa, Alejandra

2017-01-18

The aim of the study was to assess the validity of the Anger Rumination Scale (ARS; Sukhodolsky, Golub, & Cromwell, 2001) in a Mexican sample (n = 700, M age = 38.6, SD = 12.42). Through confirmatory factor analysis and using modification indices, the four-factor structure of the original scale was replicated: angry afterthoughts, thoughts of revenge, angry memories, and understanding of causes. In addition, the four-factor model had better goodness of fit indices than rival models with three and two factors. Alpha reliabilities were acceptable (.72 -.89). ARS results correlated with measures of state anger, trait anger, anger expression, and anger control (negatively); correlations were significant (ps < .001) ARS outcomes also correlated (ps < .001) with physical and verbal aggression, hostility, anger, and emotion suppression, suggesting convergent validity. Men reported more thoughts of revenge than women (p < .001; Eta squared = .026), but there was no evidence of gender differences on the other anger rumination scales, or in total scores.

Gender Moderates Association Between Emotional-Behavioral Problems and Text Comprehension in Children with Both Reading Difficulties and Adhd.

PubMed

Mano, Quintino R; Jastrowski Mano, Kristen E; Denton, Carolyn A; Epstein, Jeffery N; Tamm, Leanne

2017-05-01

Evidence suggests that higher order linguistic functioning such as text comprehension is particularly vulnerable to emotional modulation. Gender has been identified as an important moderating variable in emotional expression such that girls tend toward internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) whereas boys tend toward externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, combativeness), which may influence the relationship between emotion and text comprehension. The present study examined whether gender moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension among children ( n = 187; boys= 115, girls = 72) with both word reading difficulties (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample widely acknowledged to be at increased risk for developing emotional-behavioral problems such as anxiety, poor academic self-concept, and delinquency. A moderated regression analysis tested for the significance of two separate interaction terms (i.e., gender × externalizing problems, gender × internalizing problems) after controlling for gender, IQ, basic reading skills, cognitive-linguistic processes closely related to reading, attentional problems, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Results indicated that gender significantly and uniquely moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension. Specifically, text comprehension was relatively lower among girls with relatively higher externalizing problems, whereas no such association was observed among boys. These results contribute to our understanding of cognition-emotion interactions within reading development and raise important implications.

Gender Moderates Association Between Emotional-Behavioral Problems and Text Comprehension in Children with Both Reading Difficulties and Adhd

PubMed Central

Mano, Quintino R.; Jastrowski Mano, Kristen E.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Tamm, Leanne

2017-01-01

Evidence suggests that higher order linguistic functioning such as text comprehension is particularly vulnerable to emotional modulation. Gender has been identified as an important moderating variable in emotional expression such that girls tend toward internalizing emotions (e.g., sadness, anxiety) whereas boys tend toward externalizing emotions (e.g., anger, combativeness), which may influence the relationship between emotion and text comprehension. The present study examined whether gender moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension among children (n = 187; boys= 115, girls = 72) with both word reading difficulties (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a sample widely acknowledged to be at increased risk for developing emotional-behavioral problems such as anxiety, poor academic self-concept, and delinquency. A moderated regression analysis tested for the significance of two separate interaction terms (i.e., gender × externalizing problems, gender × internalizing problems) after controlling for gender, IQ, basic reading skills, cognitive-linguistic processes closely related to reading, attentional problems, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems. Results indicated that gender significantly and uniquely moderates the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and text comprehension. Specifically, text comprehension was relatively lower among girls with relatively higher externalizing problems, whereas no such association was observed among boys. These results contribute to our understanding of cognition-emotion interactions within reading development and raise important implications. PMID:28751795

Unsatisfied relatedness, not competence or autonomy, increases trait anger through the right amygdala.

PubMed

Wang, Yinan; Kong, Feng; Kong, Xiangzhen; Zhao, Yuanfang; Lin, Danhua; Liu, Jia

2017-10-01

Anger is a common negative emotion in social life. Behavioral research suggests that unsatisfied relatedness, autonomy, and competence are related to anger. However, it remains unclear whether these unsatisfied needs all contribute to anger or just a particular unsatisfied need is the main source of anger. In addition, little is known about the neural substrate between unsatisfied needs and anger. To address these two questions, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to explore the neural substrate underlying the relation between unsatisfied needs and trait anger. Behaviorally, we found that although all three unsatisfied needs were correlated with trait anger, unsatisfied relatedness was the only factor that was uniquely related to trait anger. Neurally, the gray matter volume of the right amygdala was correlated with trait anger, which fits nicely with the role of the amygdala as a core region for processing anger. Importantly, the right amygdala mediated the total effect of unsatisfied relatedness on trait anger, even after controlling for general personality dispositions. Our results contribute to the theoretical conceptualization of anger by elucidating the unique role of unsatisfied relatedness in anger and the neural substrate underlying such relation.

Effects of group prosocial skills training on anger control in prison inmates.

PubMed

Forbes, M R; Pratsinak, G J; Fagan, T J; Ax, R K

1992-02-01

A prosocial skills training program did not significantly affect the abilities of 48 adult male prison inmates to manage anger. Eight group treatment sessions did not influence their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors developed over years of experiential learning.

Treating Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion in Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akande, Adebowale

1997-01-01

Reviews behavioral and cognitive interventions that are potential models for the treatment of anger and impulsivity in brain injured patients, including a multicomponent treatment approach coupled with cognitive interventions. Proposes strategies to establish a therapeutic relationship with angry, impulsive patients. Examines models for treating…

Mental health nurses' emotions, exposure to patient aggression, attitudes to and use of coercive measures: Cross sectional questionnaire survey.

PubMed

Jalil, Rahul; Huber, Jorg W; Sixsmith, Judith; Dickens, Geoffrey L

2017-10-01

Mental health nurses are exposed to patient aggression, and required to manage and de-escalate aggressive incidents; coercive measures such as restraint and seclusion should only be used as a last resort. An improved understanding of links between nurses' exposure to aggression, attitudes to, and actual involvement in, coercive measures, and their emotions (anger, guilt, fear, fatigue, sadness), could inform preparation and education for prevention and management of violence. To identify relationships between mental health nurses' exposure to patient aggression, their emotions, their attitudes towards coercive containment measures, and their involvement in incidents involving seclusion and restraint. Cross-sectional, correlational, observational study. Low and medium secure wards for men and women with mental disorder in three secure mental health hospitals in England. N=Sixty eight mental health nurses who were designated keyworkers for patients enrolled into a related study. Participants completed a questionnaire battery comprising measures of their exposure to various types of aggression, their attitudes towards seclusion and restraint, and their emotions. Information about their involvement in restraint and/or restraint plus seclusion incidents was gathered for the three-month period pre- and post- their participation. Linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to test study hypotheses. Nurses who reported greater exposure to a related set of aggressive behaviours, mostly verbal in nature, which seemed personally derogatory, targeted, or humiliating, also reported higher levels of anger-related provocation. Exposure to mild and severe physical aggression was unrelated to nurses' emotions. Nurses' reported anger was significantly positively correlated with their endorsement of restraint as a management technique, but not with their actual involvement in restraint episodes. Significant differences in scores related to anger and fatigue, and to fatigue and guilt, between those involved/not involved in physical restraint and in physical restraint plus seclusion respectively were detected. In regression analyses, models comprising significant variables, but not the variables themselves, predicted involvement/non-involvement in coercive measures. Verbal aggression which appears targeted, demeaning or humiliating is associated with higher experienced anger provocation. Nurses may benefit from interventions which aim to improve their skills and coping strategies for dealing with this specific aggressive behaviour. Nurse-reported anger predicted approval of coercive violence management interventions; this may have implications for staff deployment and support. However, anger did not predict actual involvement in such incidents. Possible explanations are that nurses experiencing anger are sufficiently self-aware to avoid involvement or that teams are successful in supporting colleagues who they perceive to be 'at risk'. Future research priorities are considered. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional Awareness and Couples' Relationship Satisfaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Croyle, Kristin L.; Waltz, Jennifer

2002-01-01

This study examined the role of emotional awareness in couples' relationships and the effects of a tendency to respond to difficult couples' situations with "soft" emotions (including sadness and fear) versus "hard" emotions (including anger and resentment). Participants were 56 heterosexual couples who completed a measure of relationship…

Emotional Antecedents and Consequences of Deliberate Self-Harm and Suicide Attempts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Alexander L.; Dixon-Gordon, Katherine L.

2007-01-01

Emotional experiences immediately prior to (emotional antecedents) and following (emotional consequences) deliberate self-harm and suicide attempts in female inmates (N = 63) were examined. Anger was the antecedent emotion reported by the largest proportion of individuals who had engaged in deliberate self-harm (45.16%), suicide attempts (40.9%),…

Adult Learning in the Workplace: Emotion Work or Emotion Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bierema, Laura L.

2008-01-01

Organizational life evokes joy, hate, anger, despair, curiosity, and esteem, yet as far as management is concerned, emotions are disruptive, dysfunctional, and derailing. In spite of managerial reluctance to embrace the emotional self as a relevant aspect of the worker, emotion makes everyone human, and organizations weigh on workers' emotional…

Emotional Expression at Work and at Home: Domain, Status, or Individual Characteristics?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lively, Kathryn J.; Powell, Brian

2006-01-01

Using the emotions module of the 1996 General Social Survey, we examine strategies that individuals use to express emotion. We focus on anger, one of the emotions most problematic or potentially disruptive to human interaction. Relying on insights from three theoretical approaches to emotion--the cultural perspective, the structural perspective,…

Perceptual dimensions differentiate emotions.

PubMed

Cavanaugh, Lisa A; MacInnis, Deborah J; Weiss, Allen M

2015-08-26

Individuals often describe objects in their world in terms of perceptual dimensions that span a variety of modalities; the visual (e.g., brightness: dark-bright), the auditory (e.g., loudness: quiet-loud), the gustatory (e.g., taste: sour-sweet), the tactile (e.g., hardness: soft vs. hard) and the kinaesthetic (e.g., speed: slow-fast). We ask whether individuals use perceptual dimensions to differentiate emotions from one another. Participants in two studies (one where respondents reported on abstract emotion concepts and a second where they reported on specific emotion episodes) rated the extent to which features anchoring 29 perceptual dimensions (e.g., temperature, texture and taste) are associated with 8 emotions (anger, fear, sadness, guilt, contentment, gratitude, pride and excitement). Results revealed that in both studies perceptual dimensions differentiate positive from negative emotions and high arousal from low arousal emotions. They also differentiate among emotions that are similar in arousal and valence (e.g., high arousal negative emotions such as anger and fear). Specific features that anchor particular perceptual dimensions (e.g., hot vs. cold) are also differentially associated with emotions.

Understanding the Role of Negative Emotions in Adult Learning and Achievement: A Social Functional Perspective

PubMed Central

Fitness, Julie

2018-01-01

The role of emotions in adult learning and achievement has received increasing attention in recent years. However, much of the emphasis has been on test anxiety, rather than the wider spectrum of negative emotions such as sadness, grief, boredom and anger. This paper reports findings of a qualitative study exploring the experience and functionality of negative emotions at university. Thirty-six academic staff and students from an Australian university were interviewed about emotional responses to a range of learning events. Data analysis was informed by a prototype approach to emotion research. Four categories of discrete negative emotions (anger, sadness, fear, boredom) were considered by teachers and students to be especially salient in learning, with self-conscious emotions (guilt, embarrassment, shame) mentioned by more students than staff. While negative emotions were frequently viewed as detrimental to motivation, performance and learning, they were also construed under some circumstances as beneficial. The findings are discussed in relation to the value of social functional approaches for a better understanding of the diverse roles of negative emotions in learning and achievement. PMID:29461487

Understanding the Role of Negative Emotions in Adult Learning and Achievement: A Social Functional Perspective.

PubMed

Rowe, Anna D; Fitness, Julie

2018-02-20

The role of emotions in adult learning and achievement has received increasing attention in recent years. However, much of the emphasis has been on test anxiety, rather than the wider spectrum of negative emotions such as sadness, grief, boredom and anger. This paper reports findings of a qualitative study exploring the experience and functionality of negative emotions at university. Thirty-six academic staff and students from an Australian university were interviewed about emotional responses to a range of learning events. Data analysis was informed by a prototype approach to emotion research. Four categories of discrete negative emotions (anger, sadness, fear, boredom) were considered by teachers and students to be especially salient in learning, with self-conscious emotions (guilt, embarrassment, shame) mentioned by more students than staff. While negative emotions were frequently viewed as detrimental to motivation, performance and learning, they were also construed under some circumstances as beneficial. The findings are discussed in relation to the value of social functional approaches for a better understanding of the diverse roles of negative emotions in learning and achievement.

Nonverbal and Paraverbal Behavior in (Simulated) Medical Visits Related to Genomics and Weight: A Role for Emotion and Race

PubMed Central

Persky, Susan; Ferrer, Rebecca A.; Klein, William M. P.

2016-01-01

It is crucial to examine patient reactions to genomics-informed approaches to weight management within a clinical context, and understand the influence of patient characteristics (here, emotion and race). Examining nonverbal reactions offers a window into patients’ implicit cognitive, attitudinal and affective processes related to clinical encounters. We simulated a weight management clinical interaction with a virtual reality-based physician, and experimentally manipulated patient emotional state (anger/ fear) and whether the physician made genomic or personal behavior attributions for weight. Participants were 190 overweight females who racially identified as either Black or White. Participants made less visual contact when receiving genomic information in the anger condition, and Black participants exhibited lowered voice pitch when receiving genomic information. Black participants also increased their interpersonal distance when receiving genomic information in the anger condition. By studying non-conscious nonverbal behavior, we can better understand the nuances of these interactions. PMID:27146511

Fret not thyself: The persuasive effect of anger expression and the role of perceived appropriateness.

PubMed

Van't Riet, Jonathan; Schaap, Gabi; Kleemans, Mariska

2018-01-01

Anger expression is increasingly prevalent in Western mass media, particularly in messages that aim to persuade the audience of a certain point of view. There is a dearth of research, however, investigating whether expressing anger in mediated messages is indeed effective as a persuasive strategy. In the present research, the results of four experiments showed that expressing anger in a persuasive message was perceived as less socially appropriate than expressing non-emotional disagreement. There was also evidence that perceived appropriateness mediated a negative persuasive effect of anger expression (Study 2-4) and that anger expression resulted in perceptions of the persuasive source as unfriendly and incompetent (Studies 1 and 2). In all, the findings suggest that politicians and other public figures should be cautious in using anger as a persuasive instrument.

The Rationality/Emotional Defensiveness Scale--II. Convergent and discriminant correlational analysis in males and females with and without cancer.

PubMed

Swan, G E; Carmelli, D; Dame, A; Rosenman, R H; Spielberger, C D

1992-05-01

The psychological correlates of the Rationality/Emotional Defensiveness Scale and its two subscales were examined in 1236 males and 863 females from the Western Collaborative Group Study. An additional 157 males and 164 females with some form of cancer other than of the skin were also included in this analysis. Characteristics measured included self-reported emotional control, anger expression, trait personality, depressive and neurotic symptomatology, Type A behavior, hostility, and social desirability. Results indicate that the Rationality/Emotional Defensiveness Scale is most strongly related to the suppression and control of emotions, especially anger. Scores on this scale also tend to be associated with less Type A behavior and hostility and with more social conformity. Analysis of the component subscale suggests that Antiemotionality, i.e. the extent to which an individual uses reason and logic to avoid interpersonally related emotions, is most strongly marked by the control of anger, while Rationality, i.e. the extent to which an individual uses reason and logic as a general approach to coping with the environment, is related to the control of anxiety and a higher level of trait curiosity. The psychological interpretation of the scale appears to be largely invariant across gender, unaffected by residualization of the total scale score for its association with Social Desirability, and, except for a few minor instances, unrelated to the diagnosis of cancer.

Internal representations reveal cultural diversity in expectations of facial expressions of emotion.

PubMed

Jack, Rachael E; Caldara, Roberto; Schyns, Philippe G

2012-02-01

Facial expressions have long been considered the "universal language of emotion." Yet consistent cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions contradict such notions (e.g., R. E. Jack, C. Blais, C. Scheepers, P. G. Schyns, & R. Caldara, 2009). Rather, culture--as an intricate system of social concepts and beliefs--could generate different expectations (i.e., internal representations) of facial expression signals. To investigate, they used a powerful psychophysical technique (reverse correlation) to estimate the observer-specific internal representations of the 6 basic facial expressions of emotion (i.e., happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) in two culturally distinct groups (i.e., Western Caucasian [WC] and East Asian [EA]). Using complementary statistical image analyses, cultural specificity was directly revealed in these representations. Specifically, whereas WC internal representations predominantly featured the eyebrows and mouth, EA internal representations showed a preference for expressive information in the eye region. Closer inspection of the EA observer preference revealed a surprising feature: changes of gaze direction, shown primarily among the EA group. For the first time, it is revealed directly that culture can finely shape the internal representations of common facial expressions of emotion, challenging notions of a biologically hardwired "universal language of emotion."

Getting better with age: The relationship between age, acceptance, and negative affect

PubMed Central

Shallcross, Amanda J.; Ford, Brett Q.; Floerke, Victoria A.; Mauss, Iris B.

2013-01-01

Although aging involves cognitive and physical declines, it is also associated with improved emotional well-being, particularly lower negative affect. However, the relationship between age and global negative affect, versus discrete negative emotions, and the pathways that link age to lower negative affect are not well understood. We hypothesize that one important link between age and lower negative affect may be acceptance of negative emotional experiences. The present study examined this hypothesis in a community sample of 21–73 year olds (N = 340) by measuring acceptance and multiple indices of negative affect: trait negative affect; negative experiential and physiological reactivity to a laboratory stress induction; daily experience of negative affect; and trait negative affect six months after the initial assessment. Negative affect was measured using a discrete emotions approach whereby anger, anxiety, and sadness were assessed at each time point. Age was associated with increased acceptance as well as lower anger and anxiety (but not sadness) across measurement modalities and time points. Further, acceptance statistically mediated the relationship between age and anger and anxiety. These results are consistent with the idea that acceptance may be an important pathway in the link between age and lower negative affect. Implications of these results for understanding the nature of age-related decreases in discrete negative emotions are discussed. PMID:23276266

Ways to defuse miners' anger

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1984-06-01

The violence and riots which often occur with mining personnel are considered. The emotions and feelings which miners often experience because of their work environment are dealth with. From recognizing the pressures, the article then works to present methods to help defuse the miners' hostility and anger.

The Role of Stress and Negative Emotions in an Occupational Crisis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutri, Merja; Lindeman, Marjaana

2002-01-01

Measures of occupational crisis, anger, anxiety, and depression were completed by 277 Finnish workers (53% women). Occupational crises resulted from overload, interpersonal problems, organizational changes, or threatened job loss, accompanied by trait anxiety, suppressed anger, and depressive symptoms. Female employees who experienced…

Emotional reactions to success and failure of collective action as predictors of future action intentions: a longitudinal investigation in the context of student protests in Germany.

PubMed

Tausch, Nicole; Becker, Julia C

2013-09-01

This research examined how emotional responses to success and failure of collective action relate to willingness to engage in collective action in the future. It was hypothesized that both pride (in relation to a success) and anger (in response to failure) would motivate future collective action. Findings are reported from a two-wave longitudinal study (N= 98) in the context of student protests against tuition fees in Germany, which was conducted before and after collective action had resulted in both a success and a failure. While anger positively predicted action intentions, over and above baseline action intentions, pride exerted a significant indirect effect on action intentions via increased efficacy perceptions, over and above baseline efficacy and action intentions. Politicized identification positively predicted the intensity of both pride and anger and baseline group efficacy positively predicted the intensity of anger. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

Recognizing vocal emotions in Mandarin Chinese: a validated database of Chinese vocal emotional stimuli.

PubMed

Liu, Pan; Pell, Marc D

2012-12-01

To establish a valid database of vocal emotional stimuli in Mandarin Chinese, a set of Chinese pseudosentences (i.e., semantically meaningless sentences that resembled real Chinese) were produced by four native Mandarin speakers to express seven emotional meanings: anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, pleasant surprise, and neutrality. These expressions were identified by a group of native Mandarin listeners in a seven-alternative forced choice task, and items reaching a recognition rate of at least three times chance performance in the seven-choice task were selected as a valid database and then subjected to acoustic analysis. The results demonstrated expected variations in both perceptual and acoustic patterns of the seven vocal emotions in Mandarin. For instance, fear, anger, sadness, and neutrality were associated with relatively high recognition, whereas happiness, disgust, and pleasant surprise were recognized less accurately. Acoustically, anger and pleasant surprise exhibited relatively high mean f0 values and large variation in f0 and amplitude; in contrast, sadness, disgust, fear, and neutrality exhibited relatively low mean f0 values and small amplitude variations, and happiness exhibited a moderate mean f0 value and f0 variation. Emotional expressions varied systematically in speech rate and harmonics-to-noise ratio values as well. This validated database is available to the research community and will contribute to future studies of emotional prosody for a number of purposes. To access the database, please contact pan.liu@mail.mcgill.ca.

The effect of partner-directed emotion in social exchange decision-making.

PubMed

Eimontaite, Iveta; Nicolle, Antoinette; Schindler, Igor; Goel, Vinod

2013-01-01

Despite the prevalence of studies examining economic decision-making as a purely rational phenomenon, common sense suggests that emotions affect our decision-making particularly in a social context. To explore the influence of emotions on economic decision-making, we manipulated opponent-directed emotions prior to engaging participants in two social exchange decision-making games (the Trust Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma). Participants played both games with three different (fictional) partners and their tendency to defect was measured. Prior to playing each game, participants exchanged handwritten "essays" with their partners, and subsequently exchanged evaluations of each essay. The essays and evaluations, read by the participant, were designed to induce either anger, sympathy, or a neutral emotional response toward the confederate with whom they would then play the social exchange games. Galvanic skin conductance level (SCL) showed enhanced physiological arousal during anger induction compared to both the neutral and sympathy conditions. In both social exchange games, participants were most likely to defect against their partner after anger induction and least likely to defect after sympathy induction, with the neutral condition eliciting intermediate defection rates. This pattern was found to be strongest in participants exhibiting low cognitive control (as measured by a Go/no-Go task). The findings indicate that emotions felt toward another individual alter how one chooses to interact with them, and that this influence depends both on the specific emotion induced and the cognitive control of the individual.

The effect of partner-directed emotion in social exchange decision-making

PubMed Central

Eimontaite, Iveta; Nicolle, Antoinette; Schindler, Igor; Goel, Vinod

2013-01-01

Despite the prevalence of studies examining economic decision-making as a purely rational phenomenon, common sense suggests that emotions affect our decision-making particularly in a social context. To explore the influence of emotions on economic decision-making, we manipulated opponent-directed emotions prior to engaging participants in two social exchange decision-making games (the Trust Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma). Participants played both games with three different (fictional) partners and their tendency to defect was measured. Prior to playing each game, participants exchanged handwritten “essays” with their partners, and subsequently exchanged evaluations of each essay. The essays and evaluations, read by the participant, were designed to induce either anger, sympathy, or a neutral emotional response toward the confederate with whom they would then play the social exchange games. Galvanic skin conductance level (SCL) showed enhanced physiological arousal during anger induction compared to both the neutral and sympathy conditions. In both social exchange games, participants were most likely to defect against their partner after anger induction and least likely to defect after sympathy induction, with the neutral condition eliciting intermediate defection rates. This pattern was found to be strongest in participants exhibiting low cognitive control (as measured by a Go/no-Go task). The findings indicate that emotions felt toward another individual alter how one chooses to interact with them, and that this influence depends both on the specific emotion induced and the cognitive control of the individual. PMID:23898313

Negative emotions and behaviour: The role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy.

PubMed

Mesurado, Belén; Vidal, Elisabeth Malonda; Mestre, Anna Llorca

2018-04-01

The objective of this study is to test a longitudinal model that analyses the direct effect of negative emotions (anger, depression and anxiety, wave 1) on prosocial and aggressive behaviour (wave 2) in adolescents. And the indirect effect of negative emotions (wave 1) on prosocial and aggressive behaviour (wave 2) through regulatory emotional self-efficacy. Data was obtained from 417 adolescents in a two-wave longitudinal study (225 girls, M age = 14.70 years) from schools located in Valencia, Spain. SEM was employed to explore longitudinal models. The results showed that anger had a direct relationship with prosocial behaviour and aggression, measured two years later. However, the depression and anxiety states did not predict prosociality and aggressiveness. The mediation role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy between negative emotion and behaviours was only partially confirmed. Finally, only the perception of self-efficacy in expressing positive affect is related to prosociality and aggressiveness. Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about another’s particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing one’s own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients’ verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact. PMID:17443382

Brain oscillations and BIS/BAS (behavioral inhibition/activation system) effects on processing masked emotional cues. ERS/ERD and coherence measures of alpha band.

PubMed

Balconi, Michela; Mazza, Guido

2009-11-01

Alpha brain oscillation modulation was analyzed in response to masked emotional facial expressions. In addition, behavioural activation (BAS) and behavioural inhibition systems (BIS) were considered as an explicative factor to verify the effect of motivational significance on cortical activity. Nineteen subjects were submitted to an ample range of facial expressions of emotions (anger, fear, surprise, disgust, happiness, sadness, and neutral). The results demonstrated that anterior frontal sites were more active than central and posterior sites in response to facial stimuli. Moreover, right-side responses varied as a function of emotional types, with an increased right-frontal activity for negative emotions. Finally, whereas higher BIS subjects generated a more right hemisphere activation for some negative emotions (such as fear, anger, and surprise), Reward-BAS subjects were more responsive to positive emotion (happiness) within the left hemisphere. Valence and potential threatening power of facial expressions were considered to elucidate these cortical differences.

Preschoolers' Emotion Regulation Strategy Understanding: Relations with Emotion Socialization and Child Self-Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Pamela M.; Dennis, Tracy A.; Smith-Simon, Kristen E.; Cohen, Laura H.

2009-01-01

Preschool-age children's ability to verbally generate strategies for regulating anger and sadness, and to recognize purported effective strategies for these emotions, were examined in relation to child factors (child age, temperament, and language ability) and maternal emotion socialization (supportiveness and structuring in response to child…

Preschoolers' Understanding of Parents' Emotions: Implications for Emotional Competence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denham, Susanne A.; And Others

This study investigated preschoolers' understanding of three parental emotions: happiness, sadness, and anger. The study also examined relationships of these understandings to preschoolers' emotional competence. Subjects, 70 children with a mean age of 55 months, were presented with a dollhouse and were encouraged to imagine that the dollhouse…

INDUCED EEG GAMMA OSCILLATION ALIGNMENT IMPROVES DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN AUTISM AND ADHD GROUP RESPONSES IN A FACIAL CATEGORIZATION TASK

PubMed Central

Gross, Eric; El-Baz, Ayman S.; Sokhadze, Guela E.; Sears, Lonnie; Casanova, Manuel F.; Sokhadze, Estate M.

2012-01-01

Introduction Children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often lack the ability to recognize and properly respond to emotional stimuli. Emotional deficits also characterize children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in addition to exhibiting limited attention span. These abnormalities may effect a difference in the induced EEG gamma wave burst (35–45 Hz) peaked approximately 300–400 milliseconds following an emotional stimulus. Because induced gamma oscillations are not fixed at a definite point in time post-stimulus, analysis of averaged EEG data with traditional methods may result in an attenuated gamma burst power. Methods We used a data alignment technique to improve the averaged data, making it a better representation of the individual induced EEG gamma oscillations. A study was designed to test the response of a subject to emotional stimuli, presented in the form of emotional facial expression images. In a four part experiment, the subjects were instructed to identify gender in the first two blocks of the test, followed by differentiating between basic emotions in the final two blocks (i.e. anger vs. disgust). EEG data was collected from ASD (n=10), ADHD (n=9), and control (n=11) subjects via a 128 channel EGI system, and processed through a continuous wavelet transform and bandpass filter to isolate the gamma frequencies. A custom MATLAB code was used to align the data from individual trials between 200–600 ms post-stimulus, EEG site, and condition by maximizing the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between trials. The gamma power for the 400 ms window of maximum induced gamma burst was then calculated and compared between subject groups. Results and Conclusion Condition (anger/disgust recognition, gender recognition) × Alignment × Group (ADHD, ASD, Controls) interaction was significant at most of parietal topographies (e.g., P3–P4, P7–P8). These interactions were better manifested in the aligned data set. Our results show that alignment of the induced gamma oscillations improves sensitivity of this measure in differentiation of EEG responses to emotional facial stimuli in ADHD and ASD. PMID:22754277

INDUCED EEG GAMMA OSCILLATION ALIGNMENT IMPROVES DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN AUTISM AND ADHD GROUP RESPONSES IN A FACIAL CATEGORIZATION TASK.

PubMed

Gross, Eric; El-Baz, Ayman S; Sokhadze, Guela E; Sears, Lonnie; Casanova, Manuel F; Sokhadze, Estate M

2012-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often lack the ability to recognize and properly respond to emotional stimuli. Emotional deficits also characterize children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in addition to exhibiting limited attention span. These abnormalities may effect a difference in the induced EEG gamma wave burst (35-45 Hz) peaked approximately 300-400 milliseconds following an emotional stimulus. Because induced gamma oscillations are not fixed at a definite point in time post-stimulus, analysis of averaged EEG data with traditional methods may result in an attenuated gamma burst power. METHODS: We used a data alignment technique to improve the averaged data, making it a better representation of the individual induced EEG gamma oscillations. A study was designed to test the response of a subject to emotional stimuli, presented in the form of emotional facial expression images. In a four part experiment, the subjects were instructed to identify gender in the first two blocks of the test, followed by differentiating between basic emotions in the final two blocks (i.e. anger vs. disgust). EEG data was collected from ASD (n=10), ADHD (n=9), and control (n=11) subjects via a 128 channel EGI system, and processed through a continuous wavelet transform and bandpass filter to isolate the gamma frequencies. A custom MATLAB code was used to align the data from individual trials between 200-600 ms post-stimulus, EEG site, and condition by maximizing the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between trials. The gamma power for the 400 ms window of maximum induced gamma burst was then calculated and compared between subject groups. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Condition (anger/disgust recognition, gender recognition) × Alignment × Group (ADHD, ASD, Controls) interaction was significant at most of parietal topographies (e.g., P3-P4, P7-P8). These interactions were better manifested in the aligned data set. Our results show that alignment of the induced gamma oscillations improves sensitivity of this measure in differentiation of EEG responses to emotional facial stimuli in ADHD and ASD.

The emotional impact of loss narratives: event severity and narrative perspectives.

PubMed

Habermas, Tilmann; Diel, Verena

2010-06-01

Out of the complex influences of event, narrative and listener characteristics on narrative emotions, this paper focuses on event severity, narrative perspectives, mood, and dispositions for emotion regulation and empathy. Event severity and perspective representation were systematically varied in sad autobiographical narratives to study their influence on quantity and quality of readers' emotional response. Each of three stories were manipulated to contain elaborated perspectives, only the past protagonists' perspective (dramatic narration), and very little perspectives at all (impersonal narration). We predicted that event severity influences the quantity of emotional response, while degree of perspective representation influences plausibility and whether emotional responses are sympathetic or interactional, that is, directed against the narrator. Hypotheses were confirmed except for plausibility, and perspective representation had an effect only on anger against and dislike of the narrator. In a second study, impersonal narration evoked anger at and negative evaluations of the narrator which were related to blaming the narrator for showing too little emotional involvement. The generalizability of findings across emotions and implications for sharing of emotions in everyday and clinical settings are discussed.

(Bad) Feelings about Meeting Them? Episodic and Chronic Intergroup Emotions Associated with Positive and Negative Intergroup Contact As Predictors of Intergroup Behavior

PubMed Central

Kauff, Mathias; Asbrock, Frank; Wagner, Ulrich; Pettigrew, Thomas F.; Hewstone, Miles; Schäfer, Sarina J.; Christ, Oliver

2017-01-01

Based on two cross-sectional probability samples (Study 1: N = 1,382, Study 2: N = 1,587), we studied the interplay between positive and negative intergroup contact, different types of intergroup emotions (i.e., episodic intergroup emotions encountered during contact and more general chronic intergroup emotions), and outgroup behavior in the context of intergroup relations between non-immigrant Germans and foreigners living in Germany. In Study 1, we showed that positive and negative contact are related to specific episodic intergroup emotions (i.e., anger, fear and happiness). Results of Study 2 indicate an indirect effect of episodic intergroup emotions encountered during contact experiences on specific behavioral tendencies directed at outgroup members via more chronic situation-independent intergroup emotions. As expected, anger predicted approaching (discriminatory) behavioral tendencies (i.e., aggression) while fear predicted avoidance. The results extend the existing literature on intergroup contact and emotions by addressing positive and negative contact simultaneously and differentiating between situation-specific episodic and chronic intergroup emotions in predicting discriminatory behavioral tendencies. PMID:28900403

Children's negative emotions and ego-resiliency: longitudinal relations with social competence.

PubMed

Taylor, Zoe E; Eisenberg, Nancy; VanSchyndel, Sarah K; Eggum-Wilkens, Natalie D; Spinrad, Tracy L

2014-04-01

We examined the relations of negative emotions in toddlerhood to the development of ego-resiliency and social competence across early childhood. Specifically, we addressed whether fear and anger/frustration in 30-month-old children (N = 213) was associated with the development of ego-resiliency across 4 time points (42 to 84 months), and, in turn, whether ego-resiliency predicted social competence at 84 months. Child anger/frustration negatively predicted the intercept of ego-resiliency at 42 months (controlling for prior ego-resiliency at 18 months) as well as the slope. Fear did not significantly predict either the intercept or slope of ego-resiliency in the structural model, although it was positively correlated with anger/frustration and was negatively related to ego-resiliency in zero-order correlations. The slope of ego-resiliency was positively related to children's social competence at 84 months; however, the intercept of ego-resiliency (set at 42 months) was not a significant predictor of later social competence. Furthermore, the slope of ego-resiliency mediated the relations between anger/frustration and children's later social competence. The results suggest that individual differences in anger/frustration might contribute to the development of ego-resiliency, which, in turn, is associated with children's social competence.

Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity.

PubMed

Deng, Yaling; Chang, Lei; Yang, Meng; Huo, Meng; Zhou, Renlai

2016-01-01

The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR) was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure). We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception-women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence.

Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity

PubMed Central

Deng, Yaling; Chang, Lei; Yang, Meng; Huo, Meng

2016-01-01

The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR) was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure). We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception—women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence. PMID:27362361

Frontolimbic dysfunction in response to facial emotion in borderline personality disorder: an event-related fMRI study

PubMed Central

Minzenberg, Michael J.; Fan, Jin; New, Antonia S.; Tang, Cheuk Y.; Siever, Larry J.

2007-01-01

Clinical hallmarks of borderline personality disorder (BPD) include social and emotional dysregulation. We tested a model of frontolimbic dysfunction in facial emotion processing in BPD. Groups of 12 unmedicated adults with BPD by DSM-IV and 12 demographically-matched healthy controls (HC) viewed facial expressions (Conditions) of neutral emotion, fear and anger, and made gender discriminations during rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Analysis of variance of Region of Interest signal change revealed a statistically significant effect of the Group-by-Region-by-Condition interaction. This was due to the BPD group exhibiting a significantly larger magnitude of deactivation (relative to HC) in the bilateral rostral/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to fear and in the left ACC to fear minus neutral; and significantly greater activation in the right amygdala to fear minus neutral. There were no significant between-group differences in ROI signal change in response to anger. In voxel-wise analyses constrained within these ROIs, the BPD group exhibited significant changes in the fear minus neutral contrast, with relatively less activation in the bilateral rostral/subgenual ACC, and greater activation in the right amygdala. In the anger minus neutral contrast this pattern was reversed, with the BPD group showing greater activation in the bilateral rostral/subgenual ACC and less activation in the bilateral amygdala. We conclude that adults with BPD exhibit changes in fronto-limbic activity in the processing of fear stimuli, with exaggerated amygdala response and impaired emotion-modulation of ACC activity. The neural substrates underlying processing of anger may also be altered. These changes may represent an expression of the volumetric and serotonergic deficits observed in these brain areas in BPD. PMID:17601709

Fronto-limbic dysfunction in response to facial emotion in borderline personality disorder: an event-related fMRI study.

PubMed

Minzenberg, Michael J; Fan, Jin; New, Antonia S; Tang, Cheuk Y; Siever, Larry J

2007-08-15

Clinical hallmarks of borderline personality disorder (BPD) include social and emotional dysregulation. We tested a model of fronto-limbic dysfunction in facial emotion processing in BPD. Groups of 12 unmedicated adults with BPD by DSM-IV and 12 demographically-matched healthy controls (HC) viewed facial expressions (Conditions) of neutral emotion, fear and anger, and made gender discriminations during rapid event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Analysis of variance of Region of Interest signal change revealed a statistically significant effect of the Group-by-Region-by-Condition interaction. This was due to the BPD group exhibiting a significantly larger magnitude of deactivation (relative to HC) in the bilateral rostral/subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to fear and in the left ACC to fear minus neutral; and significantly greater activation in the right amygdala to fear minus neutral. There were no significant between-group differences in ROI signal change in response to anger. In voxel-wise analyses constrained within these ROIs, the BPD group exhibited significant changes in the fear minus neutral contrast, with relatively less activation in the bilateral rostral/subgenual ACC, and greater activation in the right amygdala. In the anger minus neutral contrast this pattern was reversed, with the BPD group showing greater activation in the bilateral rostral/subgenual ACC and less activation in the bilateral amygdala. We conclude that adults with BPD exhibit changes in fronto-limbic activity in the processing of fear stimuli, with exaggerated amygdala response and impaired emotion-modulation of ACC activity. The neural substrates underlying processing of anger may also be altered. These changes may represent an expression of the volumetric and serotonergic deficits observed in these brain areas in BPD.

The effects of subliminal anger and sadness primes on agency appraisals.

PubMed

Yang, Zixu; Tong, Eddie M W

2010-12-01

Two studies examined whether appraisals can be differentially affected by subliminal anger and sadness primes. Participants from Singapore (Experiment 1) and China (Experiment 2) were exposed to either subliminal angry faces or subliminal sad faces. Supporting appraisal theories of emotions, participants exposed to subliminal angry faces were more likely to appraise negative events as caused by other people and those exposed to subliminal sad faces were more likely to appraise the same events as caused by situational factors. The results provide the first evidence for subliminal emotion-specific cognitive effects. They show that cognitive functions such as appraisals can be affected by subliminal emotional stimuli of the same valence.

The Role of Emotion-Driven Impulse Control Difficulties in the Relation Between Social Anxiety and Aggression.

PubMed

Dixon, Laura J; Tull, Matthew T; Lee, Aaron A; Kimbrel, Nathan A; Gratz, Kim L

2017-06-01

To enhance our understanding of the factors that may account for increased aggression in socially anxious individuals, this study examined associations among emotion-driven impulse control difficulties, social anxiety, and dimensions of aggression (i.e., hostility, anger, physical aggression, verbal aggression). Individuals (N = 107; 73.8% male; M age = 40.8 years) receiving residential substance abuse treatment participated in this cross-sectional study. Social anxiety symptoms were significantly positively correlated with emotion-driven impulse control difficulties, anger, and hostility, but not verbal or physical aggression. Separate models for each aggression facet were examined to test the direct and indirect paths. Bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated a significant indirect path from social anxiety symptoms to each facet of aggression through emotion-driven impulse control difficulties (ps < .05). Results highlight the potential utility of targeting emotion-driven impulse control difficulties to decrease aggression among socially anxious individuals. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of cue modality and emotional category on recognition of nonverbal emotional signals in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Vogel, Bastian D; Brück, Carolin; Jacob, Heike; Eberle, Mark; Wildgruber, Dirk

2016-07-07

Impaired interpretation of nonverbal emotional cues in patients with schizophrenia has been reported in several studies and a clinical relevance of these deficits for social functioning has been assumed. However, it is unclear to what extent the impairments depend on specific emotions or specific channels of nonverbal communication. Here, the effect of cue modality and emotional categories on accuracy of emotion recognition was evaluated in 21 patients with schizophrenia and compared to a healthy control group (n = 21). To this end, dynamic stimuli comprising speakers of both genders in three different sensory modalities (auditory, visual and audiovisual) and five emotional categories (happy, alluring, neutral, angry and disgusted) were used. Patients with schizophrenia were found to be impaired in emotion recognition in comparison to the control group across all stimuli. Considering specific emotions more severe deficits were revealed in the recognition of alluring stimuli and less severe deficits in the recognition of disgusted stimuli as compared to all other emotions. Regarding cue modality the extent of the impairment in emotional recognition did not significantly differ between auditory and visual cues across all emotional categories. However, patients with schizophrenia showed significantly more severe disturbances for vocal as compared to facial cues when sexual interest is expressed (alluring stimuli), whereas more severe disturbances for facial as compared to vocal cues were observed when happiness or anger is expressed. Our results confirmed that perceptual impairments can be observed for vocal as well as facial cues conveying various social and emotional connotations. The observed differences in severity of impairments with most severe deficits for alluring expressions might be related to specific difficulties in recognizing the complex social emotional information of interpersonal intentions as compared to "basic" emotional states. Therefore, future studies evaluating perception of nonverbal cues should consider a broader range of social and emotional signals beyond basic emotions including attitudes and interpersonal intentions. Identifying specific domains of social perception particularly prone for misunderstandings in patients with schizophrenia might allow for a refinement of interventions aiming at improving social functioning.

The Effects of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia on Anger Reactivity and Persistence in Major Depression

PubMed Central

Ellis, Alissa J.; Shumake, Jason; Beevers, Christopher G.

2016-01-01

The experience of anger during a depressive episode has recently been identified as a poor prognostic indicator of illness course. Given the clinical implications of anger in major depressive disorder (MDD), understanding the mechanisms involved in anger reactivity and persistence is critical for improved intervention. Biological processes involved in emotion regulation during stress, such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), may play a role in maintaining negative moods. Clinically depressed (MDD) (n=49) and non-depressed (non-MDD) (n=50) individuals were challenged with a stressful computer task shown to increase anger, while RSA (high frequency range 0.15–0.4 Hz) was collected. RSA predicted future anger, but was unrelated to current anger. That is, across participants, low baseline RSA predicted anger reactivity during the task, and in depressed individuals, those with low RSA during the task had a greater likelihood of anger persistence during a recovery period. These results suggest that low RSA may be a psychophysiological process involved in anger regulation in depression. Low RSA may contribute to sustained illness course by diminishing the repair of angry moods. PMID:27401801

Anger in the Trajectory of Healing from Childhood Maltreatment

PubMed Central

Thomas, Sandra P.; Bannister, Sarah C.; Hall, Joanne M.

2011-01-01

When a girl is abused during childhood, she may not experience anger, only helplessness or numbness. Only later may the emotion of anger surface. Little is known about anger cognitions or behaviors as they occur across the years of the healing trajectory from childhood maltreatment. Data for the present secondary analysis were derived from a large narrative study of women thriving in adulthood despite childhood abuse. The purpose of this analysis was to examine the phenomenon of anger and its role in the recovery process of 6 midlife women. The 6 cases were purposefully selected because their interviews contained rich descriptions of anger experiences. Because each woman was interviewed 3 times over a 6–12 month period, 18 transcripts were available for in-depth examination. A typology was constructed, depicting 5 types of anger. Anger ranged from nonproductive, self-castigating behavior to empowering, righteous anger that enabled women to protect themselves from further abuse and to advocate for abused children. Study findings are relevant to extant theories of women’s anger and feminist therapies. PMID:22633579

A different view of anger: the cognitive-neoassociation conception of the relation of anger to aggression.

PubMed

Berkowitz, Leonard

2012-01-01

The common, everyday understanding of anger is problematic in a number of respects-in its inattention to the prototypic nature of this emotional state; in its failure to recognize the important role often played by the critical event's aversiveness; and in its neglect of the frequently close connection between anger arousal and aggression-related motor impulses. This article discusses all of these matters from the point of view of my cognitive-neoassociation perspective [Berkowitz, 1990, 1993, 2010; Berkowitz and Harmon-Jones, 2004]. The role of automatic, nonconscious reactions is considered, and it is also emphasized that angry feelings are linked to approach motivation-movement toward the perceived source of the anger. The article also briefly summarizes relevant research dealing with the self-regulation of anger reactions. This broad review hopefully will prompt further inquiries into the arousal, nature, and operation of anger. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Others' anger makes people work harder not smarter: the effect of observing anger and sarcasm on creative and analytic thinking.

PubMed

Miron-Spektor, Ella; Efrat-Treister, Dorit; Rafaeli, Anat; Schwarz-Cohen, Orit

2011-09-01

The authors examine whether and how observing anger influences thinking processes and problem-solving ability. In 3 studies, the authors show that participants who listened to an angry customer were more successful in solving analytic problems, but less successful in solving creative problems compared with participants who listened to an emotionally neutral customer. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors further show that observing anger communicated through sarcasm enhances complex thinking and solving of creative problems. Prevention orientation is argued to be the latent variable that mediated the effect of observing anger on complex thinking. The present findings help reconcile inconsistent findings in previous research, promote theory about the effects of observing anger and sarcasm, and contribute to understanding the effects of anger in the workplace. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved

Multilevel analysis of facial expressions of emotion and script: self-report (arousal and valence) and psychophysiological correlates.

PubMed

Balconi, Michela; Vanutelli, Maria Elide; Finocchiaro, Roberta

2014-09-26

The paper explored emotion comprehension in children with regard to facial expression of emotion. The effect of valence and arousal evaluation, of context and of psychophysiological measures was monitored. Indeed subjective evaluation of valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (high vs. low), and contextual (facial expression vs. facial expression and script) variables were supposed to modulate the psychophysiological responses. Self-report measures (in terms of correct recognition, arousal and valence attribution) and psychophysiological correlates (facial electromyography, EMG, skin conductance response, SCR, and heart rate, HR) were observed when children (N = 26; mean age = 8.75 y; range 6-11 y) looked at six facial expressions of emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust) and six emotional scripts (contextualized facial expressions). The competencies about the recognition, the evaluation on valence and arousal was tested in concomitance with psychophysiological variations. Specifically, we tested for the congruence of these multiple measures. Log-linear analysis and repeated measure ANOVAs showed different representations across the subjects, as a function of emotion. Specifically, children' recognition and attribution were well developed for some emotions (such as anger, fear, surprise and happiness), whereas some other emotions (mainly disgust and sadness) were less clearly represented. SCR, HR and EMG measures were modulated by the evaluation based on valence and arousal, with increased psychophysiological values mainly in response to anger, fear and happiness. As shown by multiple regression analysis, a significant consonance was found between self-report measures and psychophysiological behavior, mainly for emotions rated as more arousing and negative in valence. The multilevel measures were discussed at light of dimensional attribution model.

Self-affirmation increases defensiveness toward health risk information among those experiencing negative emotions: Results from two national samples.

PubMed

Ferrer, Rebecca A; Klein, William M P; Graff, Kaitlin A

2017-04-01

Self-affirmation can promote health behavior change and yield long-term improvements in health via its effect on receptiveness to risk information in behavior change interventions. Across 2 studies, we examined whether the emotional state of the person presented with health risk information moderates self-affirmation effectiveness. Data were collected from 2 U.S. national samples (n = 652, n = 448) via GfK, an Internet-based survey company. Female alcohol consumers completed an emotion induction (fear, anger, or neutral). They then completed a standard self-affirmation (or no-affirmation) essay-writing task, and subsequently received a health message linking alcohol to breast cancer. There was a significant interaction between emotion and self-affirmation conditions, such that self-affirmation reduced the specificity of health behavior change plans among those experiencing negative emotion (Study 1: B = -0.55, p < .001), with consistent but not significant effects for anger (Study 2: B = -.47, p = .069. Among self-affirmed participants, essays were rated as significantly less self-affirming for individuals experiencing negative emotion (or anger). Mediation analyses limited to the self-affirmation condition revealed an indirect effect of negative emotion condition on health behavior change plan specificity via self-affirmation ratings of essay content in Study 1: β = 0.04, p = .041. The salutary effect of self-affirmation on plan specificity was reversed with negative emotion. These findings may be attributed to disruption of the self-affirmation process. Individuals who enter interventions using self-affirmation in a negative emotion state may be less prepared to benefit from other intervention content, and may even be less likely to change health behaviors as a result of the intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A Test and Extension of Lane and Terry’s (2000) Conceptual Model of Mood-Performance Relationships Using a Large Internet Sample

PubMed Central

Lane, Andrew M.; Terry, Peter C.; Devonport, Tracey J.; Friesen, Andrew P.; Totterdell, Peter A.

2017-01-01

The present study tested and extended Lane and Terry (2000) conceptual model of mood-performance relationships using a large dataset from an online experiment. Methodological and theoretical advances included testing a more balanced model of pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and evaluating relationships among emotion regulation traits, states and beliefs, psychological skills use, perceptions of performance, mental preparation, and effort exerted during competition. Participants (N = 73,588) completed measures of trait emotion regulation, emotion regulation beliefs, regulation efficacy, use of psychological skills, and rated their anger, anxiety, dejection, excitement, energy, and happiness before completing a competitive concentration task. Post-competition, participants completed measures of effort exerted, beliefs about the quality of mental preparation, and subjective performance. Results showed that dejection associated with worse performance with the no-dejection group performing 3.2% better. Dejection associated with higher anxiety and anger scores and lower energy, excitement, and happiness scores. The proposed moderating effect of dejection was supported for the anxiety-performance relationship but not the anger-performance relationship. In the no-dejection group, participants who reported moderate or high anxiety outperformed those reporting low anxiety by about 1.6%. Overall, results showed partial support for Lane and Terry’s model. In terms of extending the model, results showed dejection associated with greater use of suppression, less frequent use of re-appraisal and psychological skills, lower emotion regulation beliefs, and lower emotion regulation efficacy. Further, dejection associated with greater effort during performance, beliefs that pre-competition emotions did not assist goal achievement, and low subjective performance. Future research is required to investigate the role of intense emotions in emotion regulation and performance. PMID:28458641

Negative emotions towards others are diminished in remitted major depression.

PubMed

Zahn, R; Lythe, K E; Gethin, J A; Green, S; Deakin, J F W; Workman, C; Moll, J

2015-06-01

One influential view is that vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a proneness to experience negative emotions in general. In contrast, blame attribution theories emphasise the importance of blaming oneself rather than others for negative events. Our previous exploratory study provided support for the attributional hypothesis that patients with remitted MDD show no overall bias towards negative emotions, but a selective bias towards emotions entailing self-blame relative to emotions that entail blaming others. More specifically, we found a decreased proneness for contempt/disgust towards others relative to oneself (i.e. self-contempt bias). Here, we report a definitive test of the competing general negative versus specific attributional bias theories of MDD. We compared a medication-free remitted MDD (n=101) and a control group (n=70) with no family or personal history of MDD on a previously validated experimental test of moral emotions. The task measures proneness to specific emotions associated with different types of self-blame (guilt, shame, self-contempt/disgust, self-indignation/anger) and blame of others (other-indignation/anger, other-contempt/disgust) whilst controlling for the intensity of unpleasantness. We confirmed the hypothesis that patients with MDD exhibit an increased self-contempt bias with a reduction in contempt/disgust towards others. Furthermore, they also showed a decreased proneness for indignation/anger towards others. This corroborates the prediction that vulnerability to MDD is associated with an imbalance of specific self- and other-blaming emotions rather than a general increase in negative emotions. This has important implications for neurocognitive models and calls for novel focussed interventions to rebalance blame in MDD. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

A Test and Extension of Lane and Terry's (2000) Conceptual Model of Mood-Performance Relationships Using a Large Internet Sample.

PubMed

Lane, Andrew M; Terry, Peter C; Devonport, Tracey J; Friesen, Andrew P; Totterdell, Peter A

2017-01-01

The present study tested and extended Lane and Terry (2000) conceptual model of mood-performance relationships using a large dataset from an online experiment. Methodological and theoretical advances included testing a more balanced model of pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and evaluating relationships among emotion regulation traits, states and beliefs, psychological skills use, perceptions of performance, mental preparation, and effort exerted during competition. Participants ( N = 73,588) completed measures of trait emotion regulation, emotion regulation beliefs, regulation efficacy, use of psychological skills, and rated their anger, anxiety, dejection, excitement, energy, and happiness before completing a competitive concentration task. Post-competition, participants completed measures of effort exerted, beliefs about the quality of mental preparation, and subjective performance. Results showed that dejection associated with worse performance with the no-dejection group performing 3.2% better. Dejection associated with higher anxiety and anger scores and lower energy, excitement, and happiness scores. The proposed moderating effect of dejection was supported for the anxiety-performance relationship but not the anger-performance relationship. In the no-dejection group, participants who reported moderate or high anxiety outperformed those reporting low anxiety by about 1.6%. Overall, results showed partial support for Lane and Terry's model. In terms of extending the model, results showed dejection associated with greater use of suppression, less frequent use of re-appraisal and psychological skills, lower emotion regulation beliefs, and lower emotion regulation efficacy. Further, dejection associated with greater effort during performance, beliefs that pre-competition emotions did not assist goal achievement, and low subjective performance. Future research is required to investigate the role of intense emotions in emotion regulation and performance.

Self- affirmation increases defensiveness toward health risk information among those experiencing negative emotions: Results from two national samples

PubMed Central

Ferrer, Rebecca A.; Klein, William M.P.; Graff, Kaitlin A.

2017-01-01

Objective Self-affirmation can promote health behavior change and yield long-term improvements in health via its effect on receptiveness to risk information in behavior change interventions. Across two studies, we examined whether the emotional state of the person presented with health risk information moderates self-affirmation effectiveness. Methods Data were collected from two U.S. national samples (n=652, n=448) via GfK, an internet-based survey company. Female alcohol consumers completed an emotion induction (fear, anger, or neutral). They then completed a standard self-affirmation (or no-affirmation) essay-writing task, and subsequently received a health message linking alcohol to breast cancer. Results There was a significant interaction between emotion and self-affirmation conditions, such that self-affirmation reduced the specificity of health behavior change plans among those experiencing negative emotion (Study 1: B= −0.55, p<.001), with consistent but not significant effects for anger (Study 2: B= −.47, p=.069. Among self-affirmed participants, essays were rated as significantly less self-affirming for individuals experiencing negative emotion (or anger). Mediation analyses limited to the self-affirmation condition revealed an indirect effect of negative emotion condition on health behavior change plan specificity via self-affirmation ratings of essay content in Study 1: β=0.04, p=.041. Conclusions The salutary effect of self-affirmation on plan specificity was reversed with negative emotion. These findings may be attributed to disruption of the self-affirmation process. Individuals who enter interventions employing self-affirmation in a negative emotion state may be less prepared to benefit from other intervention content, and may even be less likely to change health behaviors as a result of the intervention. PMID:28206787

Multilevel analysis of facial expressions of emotion and script: self-report (arousal and valence) and psychophysiological correlates

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The paper explored emotion comprehension in children with regard to facial expression of emotion. The effect of valence and arousal evaluation, of context and of psychophysiological measures was monitored. Indeed subjective evaluation of valence (positive vs. negative) and arousal (high vs. low), and contextual (facial expression vs. facial expression and script) variables were supposed to modulate the psychophysiological responses. Methods Self-report measures (in terms of correct recognition, arousal and valence attribution) and psychophysiological correlates (facial electromyography, EMG, skin conductance response, SCR, and heart rate, HR) were observed when children (N = 26; mean age = 8.75 y; range 6-11 y) looked at six facial expressions of emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust) and six emotional scripts (contextualized facial expressions). The competencies about the recognition, the evaluation on valence and arousal was tested in concomitance with psychophysiological variations. Specifically, we tested for the congruence of these multiple measures. Results Log-linear analysis and repeated measure ANOVAs showed different representations across the subjects, as a function of emotion. Specifically, children’ recognition and attribution were well developed for some emotions (such as anger, fear, surprise and happiness), whereas some other emotions (mainly disgust and sadness) were less clearly represented. SCR, HR and EMG measures were modulated by the evaluation based on valence and arousal, with increased psychophysiological values mainly in response to anger, fear and happiness. Conclusions As shown by multiple regression analysis, a significant consonance was found between self-report measures and psychophysiological behavior, mainly for emotions rated as more arousing and negative in valence. The multilevel measures were discussed at light of dimensional attribution model. PMID:25261242

Preschool children’s views on emotion regulation: Functional associations and implications for social-emotional adjustment

PubMed Central

Dennis, Tracy A.; Kelemen, Deborah A.

2009-01-01

Previous studies show that preschool children view negative emotions as susceptible to intentional control. However, the extent of this understanding and links with child social-emotional adjustment are poorly understood. To examine this, 62 3- and 4-year-olds were presented with puppet scenarios in which characters experienced anger, sadness, and fear. Forty-seven adults were presented with a parallel questionnaire. Participants rated the degree to which six emotion-regulation strategies were effective in decreasing negative emotions. Results showed that even the youngest preschoolers viewed cognitive and behavioral distraction and repairing the situation as relatively effective; compared to adults, however, preschoolers favored relatively “ineffective” strategies such as venting and rumination. Children also showed a functional view of emotion regulation; that effective strategies depend on the emotion being regulated. All participants favored repairing a negative situation to reduce anger and behavioral distraction to reduce sadness and fear. Finally, the more children indicated that venting would reduce negative emotions, the lower their maternal report of social skills. Findings are discussed in terms of functional emotion theory and implications of emotion-regulation understanding for child adjustment. PMID:19724663

Neural correlates of impaired emotion processing in manifest Huntington's disease.

PubMed

Dogan, Imis; Saß, Christian; Mirzazade, Shahram; Kleiman, Alexandra; Werner, Cornelius J; Pohl, Anna; Schiefer, Johannes; Binkofski, Ferdinand; Schulz, Jörg B; Shah, N Jon; Reetz, Kathrin

2014-05-01

The complex phenotype of Huntington's disease (HD) encompasses motor, psychiatric and cognitive dysfunctions, including early impairments in emotion recognition. In this first functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated emotion-processing deficits in 14 manifest HD patients and matched controls. An emotion recognition task comprised short video clips displaying one of six basic facial expressions (sadness, happiness, disgust, fear, anger and neutral). Structural changes between patients and controls were assessed by means of voxel-based morphometry. Along with deficient recognition of negative emotions, patients exhibited predominantly lower neural response to stimuli of negative valences in the amygdala, hippocampus, striatum, insula, cingulate and prefrontal cortices, as well as in sensorimotor, temporal and visual areas. Most of the observed reduced activity patterns could not be explained merely by regional volume loss. Reduced activity in the thalamus during fear correlated with lower thalamic volumes. During the processing of sadness, patients exhibited enhanced amygdala and hippocampal activity along with reduced recruitment of the medial prefrontal cortex. Higher amygdala activity was related to more pronounced amygdala atrophy and disease burden. Overall, the observed emotion-related dysfunctions in the context of structural neurodegeneration suggest both disruptions of striatal-thalamo-cortical loops and potential compensation mechanism with greater disease severity in manifest HD.

Anxiety and anger immediately prior to myocardial infarction and long-term mortality: Characteristics of high-risk patients.

PubMed

Smeijers, Loes; Mostofsky, Elizabeth; Tofler, Geoffrey H; Muller, James E; Kop, Willem J; Mittleman, Murray A

2017-02-01

Acute high levels of anger and anxiety are associated with an elevated risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in the following two hours. MIs preceded by these acute negative emotions may also have a poor long-term prognosis, but information about high-risk patients is lacking. We examined whether young age and female sex are associated with MIs that are preceded by negative emotions and whether age and sex moderate the subsequent increased mortality risk following MI preceded by negative emotions. We conducted a secondary analysis of the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study (N=2176, mean age=60.1±12.3years, 29.2% women). Anxiety and anger immediately prior to (0-2h) MI and the day before (24-26h) MI were assessed using a structured interview. Subsequent 10-year all-cause mortality was determined using the US National Death Index. Anxiety during the 0-2h pre-MI period was associated with younger age (OR=0.98,95% CI=0.96-0.99 per year) and female sex (OR=1.50,95% CI=1.11-2.02). Anger in the 0-2h pre-MI period was also associated with younger age (OR=0.95,95% CI=0.94-0.96) but not with sex (OR=0.93,95% CI=0.67-1.28). During follow-up, 580 (26.7%) patients died. Mortality rate was higher if MI occurred immediately after high anxiety, particularly in patients ≥65years (HR=1.80,95% CI=1.28-2.54) vs. younger patients (HR=0.87,95% CI=0.55-1.40; p-interaction=0.015). Other interactions with sex or anger were not significant. Patients with high anxiety or anger levels in the critical 2-hour period prior to MI are younger than those without such emotional precipitants. In addition, pre-MI anxiety is associated with an elevated 10-year mortality risk in patients aged ≥65years. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anxiety and Anger Immediately Prior to Myocardial Infarction and Long-term Mortality: Characteristics of High-Risk Patients

PubMed Central

Smeijers, Loes; Mostofsky, Elizabeth; Tofler, Geoffrey H.; Muller, James E.; Kop, Willem J.; Mittleman, Murray A.

2016-01-01

Objective Acute high levels of anger and anxiety are associated with an elevated risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in the following two hours. MIs preceded by these acute negative emotions may also have a poor long-term prognosis, but information about high-risk patients is lacking. We examined whether young age and female sex are associated with MIs that are preceded by negative emotions and whether age and sex moderate the subsequent increased mortality risk following MI preceded by negative emotions. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study (N=2176, mean age=60.1±12.3 years, 29.2% women). Anxiety and anger immediately prior to (0-2 hour) MI and the day before (24-26 hour) MI were assessed using a structured interview. Subsequent 10-year all-cause mortality was determined using the US National Death Index. Results Anxiety during the 0-2 hour pre-MI period was associated with younger age (OR=0.98,95%CI=0.96-0.99 per year) and female sex (OR=1.50,95%CI=1.11-2.02). Anger in the 0-2 hour pre-MI period was also associated with younger age (OR=0.95,95%CI=0.94-0.96) but not with sex (OR=0.93,95%CI=0.67-1.28). During follow-up, 580 (26.7%) patients died. Mortality rate was higher if MI occurred immediately after high anxiety, particularly in patients ≥65 years (HR=1.80,95%CI=1.28-2.54) vs. younger patients (HR=0.87,95%CI=0.55-1.40; p-interaction=0.015). Other interactions with sex or anger were not significant. Conclusions Patients with high anxiety or anger levels in the critical 2-hour period prior to MI are younger than those without such emotional precipitants. In addition, pre-MI anxiety is associated with an elevated 10-year mortality risk in patients aged ≥65 years. PMID:28107888

Anger-irritability as a mediator of ADHD risk for adolescent alcohol use and the contribution of coping skills

PubMed Central

Harty, Seth C.; Gnagy, Elizabeth M.; Pelham, William E.; Molina, Brooke S. G.

2017-01-01

Background Research on susceptibility to alcohol use disorder within the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) population has begun to expand examination of putative moderators and mediators in order to develop effective treatments. Specific dysregulated emotions have been separately associated with ADHD and with alcohol use difficulties. The current study is the first to conjointly study these variables by testing anger-irritability as a mediator of ADHD risk for adolescent alcohol use. Methods Frequency of binge drinking, drunkenness, and alcohol problems were examined for 142 children with ADHD followed into adolescence and compared to 100 demographically similar youth without ADHD. Parent-rated anger-irritability was tested as a mediator. Behavioral and cognitive coping skills, which are key clinical treatment targets, were studied as moderators of these associations. Results Childhood ADHD was positively associated with anger-irritability and the drinking outcomes in adolescence. Anger-irritability mediated the association between ADHD and alcohol use problems, but not binge drinking or drunkenness. Behavioral and cognitive, but not avoidant, coping played a moderating role, but only of the association between childhood ADHD and anger-irritability. Conclusions Active coping strategies by adolescents with ADHD may reduce the vulnerability to alcohol problems through a reduction of negative emotions. Future research on additional mediators and treatments that target these skills is encouraged. PMID:27991655

Attributional and Emotional Determinants of Aggression in People with Mild Intellectual Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Warren; Bramston, Paul

1997-01-01

People (n=103) with mild intellectual disabilities responded to several scales of anger, hostility, aggression, and personality. Results were consistent with earlier studies of relationships among anger, hostility, and aggression conducted with the general population. Findings suggest that people with intellectual disabilities may benefit from…

The development of cross-cultural recognition of vocal emotion during childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Chronaki, Georgia; Wigelsworth, Michael; Pell, Marc D; Kotz, Sonja A

2018-06-14

Humans have an innate set of emotions recognised universally. However, emotion recognition also depends on socio-cultural rules. Although adults recognise vocal emotions universally, they identify emotions more accurately in their native language. We examined developmental trajectories of universal vocal emotion recognition in children. Eighty native English speakers completed a vocal emotion recognition task in their native language (English) and foreign languages (Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic) expressing anger, happiness, sadness, fear, and neutrality. Emotion recognition was compared across 8-to-10, 11-to-13-year-olds, and adults. Measures of behavioural and emotional problems were also taken. Results showed that although emotion recognition was above chance for all languages, native English speaking children were more accurate in recognising vocal emotions in their native language. There was a larger improvement in recognising vocal emotion from the native language during adolescence. Vocal anger recognition did not improve with age for the non-native languages. This is the first study to demonstrate universality of vocal emotion recognition in children whilst supporting an "in-group advantage" for more accurate recognition in the native language. Findings highlight the role of experience in emotion recognition, have implications for child development in modern multicultural societies and address important theoretical questions about the nature of emotions.

What Triggers Anger in Everyday Life? Links to the Intensity, Control, and Regulation of These Emotions, and Personality Traits.

PubMed

Kashdan, Todd B; Goodman, Fallon R; Mallard, Travis T; DeWall, C Nathan

2016-12-01

Why do people experience anger? Most of our knowledge on anger-triggering events is based on the study of reactions at a single time point in a person's life. Little research has examined how people experience anger in their daily life over time. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive examination of the situational determinants of anger over the course of 3 weeks. Using daily diary methodology, people (N = 173; 2,342 anger episodes) reported their most intense daily anger and, with an open-ended format, described the trigger. Participants also answered questions on anger intensity, control, and regulatory strategies, along with baseline personality trait measures. Using an iterative coding system, five anger trigger categories emerged: other people, psychological and physical distress, intrapersonal demands, environment, and diffuse/undifferentiated/unknown. Compared with other triggers, when anger was provoked by other people or when the source was unknown, there was a stronger positive association with anger intensity and lack of control. Personality traits (i.e., anger, mindfulness, psychological need satisfaction, the Big Five) showed few links to the experience and regulation of daily anger. Although aversive events often spur anger, the correlates and consequences of anger differ depending on the source of aversion; personality traits offer minimal value in predicting anger in daily life. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Musical Understanding, Musical Works, and Emotional Expression: Implications for Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, David J.

2005-01-01

What do musicians, critics, and listeners mean when they use emotion-words to describe a piece of instrumental music? How can "pure" musical sounds "express" emotions such as joyfulness, sadness, anguish, optimism, and anger? Sounds are not living organisms; sounds cannot feel emotions. Yet many people around the world believe they hear emotions…

Emotional Representation in Facial Expression and Script: A Comparison between Normal and Autistic Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balconi, Michela; Carrera, Alba

2007-01-01

The paper explored conceptual and lexical skills with regard to emotional correlates of facial stimuli and scripts. In two different experimental phases normal and autistic children observed six facial expressions of emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust) and six emotional scripts (contextualized facial expressions). In…

Emotions, Emotional Intelligence and Leadership: A Brief, Pragmatic Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingram, Jay; Cangemi, Joseph

2012-01-01

When people think of emotions, usually they think of different states of being, such as happiness, sadness, or anger. However, emotions generate very powerful chemicals that can create positive feelings, such as motivation and enthusiasm, or they can create more negative responses, such as offending and even attacking others. When an emotionally…

The visual analysis of emotional actions.

PubMed

Chouchourelou, Arieta; Matsuka, Toshihiko; Harber, Kent; Shiffrar, Maggie

2006-01-01

Is the visual analysis of human actions modulated by the emotional content of those actions? This question is motivated by a consideration of the neuroanatomical connections between visual and emotional areas. Specifically, the superior temporal sulcus (STS), known to play a critical role in the visual detection of action, is extensively interconnected with the amygdala, a center for emotion processing. To the extent that amygdala activity influences STS activity, one would expect to find systematic differences in the visual detection of emotional actions. A series of psychophysical studies tested this prediction. Experiment 1 identified point-light walker movies that convincingly depicted five different emotional states: happiness, sadness, neutral, anger, and fear. In Experiment 2, participants performed a walker detection task with these movies. Detection performance was systematically modulated by the emotional content of the gaits. Participants demonstrated the greatest visual sensitivity to angry walkers. The results of Experiment 3 suggest that local velocity cues to anger may account for high false alarm rates to the presence of angry gaits. These results support the hypothesis that the visual analysis of human action depends upon emotion processes.

Experiencing Emotions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brodie, Carolyn S.

1996-01-01

Suggests activities for elementary school students that focus on their emotions. Provides a list of picture books that deal with the following: general feelings, anger, embarrassment, fear/anxiety, happiness, hate, jealousy, loneliness, love, pride, and sadness. (AEF)

On Emotional Intelligence: A Conversation with Daniel Goleman.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Neil, John

1996-01-01

Emotional intelligence involves a cluster of skills, including self-control, zeal, persistence, and self-motivation. Every child must be taught the essentials of handling anger, managing conflicts, developing empathy, and controlling impulses. Schools must help children recognize and manage their emotions. Educators should model emotional…

Anger and the heart: perspectives on cardiac risk, mechanisms and interventions.

PubMed

Suls, Jerry

2013-01-01

In the popular imagination, anger has long been linked to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but empirical validation from case-control and prospective studies emerged only in the 1970's. After describing the multidimensional nature of anger and its assessment (via self-report or observed in structured interviews), this paper selectively reviews evidence in (a) behavioral epidemiology, (b) stress and biological processes with implications for cardiopathogenesis, and (c) behavioral/pharmacological interventions for anger/hostility reduction. Although evidence is inconsistent, chronic feelings of anger, cynical distrust and antagonistic behavior are at least modestly associated with risk of both initiation and progression of CVD. Anger/hostility also is linked to stress exposure and reactivity, exaggerated autonomic function, reduced heart rate variability, platelet aggregation and inflammation. Clinical and pharmacologic treatment of anger/hostility has the potential to reduce anger and its health-damaging effects. Limitations, including third-variable explanations and overlap among the negative emotions, and implications for cardiology and behavioral medicine research and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Links Between Remembered Childhood Emotion Socialization and Adult Adjustment: Similarities and Differences Between European American and African American Women

PubMed Central

Leerkes, Esther M.; Supple, Andrew J.; Su, Jinni; Cavanaugh, Alyson M.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper was to examine whether recollections of mothers’ emotion socialization practices during childhood are linked to adult emotional well-being as indexed by depression, trait anger, and cardiac vagal tone, and whether these effects vary for African American and European American women. Participants included 251 women (128 European American; 123 African American) who ranged in age from 18 to 44 years (M = 25 years). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated strong measurement and factor invariance across African American and European American participants. Remembered non-supportive emotion socialization was linked with elevated depressive symptoms for European American women, but not African American women and with elevated trait anger for both groups. Remembered supportive emotion socialization was linked with higher resting vagal tone for both groups. The results provide some support for the view that non-supportive emotion socialization may be more detrimental for European Americans than African Americans. PMID:29527083

The development of children's strategies for the social control of emotion.

PubMed

McCoy, C L; Masters, J C

1985-10-01

It has been shown that young children can recognize emotional states in their peers, that they understand many of the antecedents of emotion, and they are motivated to change negative emotional states in others. The present study examined children's ability to nominate strategic social action that would alter the ongoing emotional state of a peer. Children of 3 ages--5, 8, and 12 years of age--viewed a picture of a young child actually experiencing happiness, sadness, anger, or in a neutral state. In a portion of instances, information was also provided about the social or nonsocial experience that led to the target child's state. The strategies children nominated fell into a small set of agonistic (nurturant) and antagonistic (aggressive) behaviors intended to change positive or negative states. With increasing age, children tended to nominate a greater proportion of verbal strategies, social strategies (with the exception of strategies nominated to change anger), and strategies that directly addressed the cause of another's emotional state.