Module 6: Emotion Regulation Flashcards
(31 cards)
Emotions have three components, what are they:
(A) Feeling:
the subjective experience
of emotion, the feeling that
only we can experience
inside our own awareness,
it’s personal to you (+/- or
Mild/Intense).
(B) Behavior:
emotions lead us to act,
approach or avoidance.
Faces are the most
emotional parts of our body
and is a good example of
emotion behaviour i.e.,
smile/frown to
communicate.
(C) Physiological:
heart rate, respiration,
arousal levels are
examples of physiological
systems which are
triggered by emotions to
deal with threats etc. in our
environment.
Emotions can be triggered by….
Emotions are a response to a particular stimulus or event:
> External or internal stimuli
(present or not present-
thoughts)
e.g. spider, gift, thoughts
What is the difference between emotions and mood?
A mood is a long-sustained state of emotion that is not triggered by anything in particular.
How is each of the (3) components of emotion measured?
(A) Feelings:
using self-report surveys, a
subjective measure that
relies on introspection.
(B) Behaviour:
using video cameras etc.
and merely observe
peoples behaviour e.g.
facial expressions.
(C) Physiological:
measuring physiological
responses is an objective
measure.
e.g. eye blink, muscle
movement, pupil dilation,
galvanic skin response,
heart rate, respiration rate
etc.Are facial expressions a good reflection of peoples subjective emotional experience?
Yes. Facial expressions are generally an honest cue for what emotion they’re experiencing, it can be suppressed but not in spontaneous situations.
Are facial expressions universal?
> what are (6) basic emotions
Yes. there are 6 basic emotions which are characterised by facial movements that are recognisable cross-culturally.
(A) Anger (B) Sadness (C) Fear (D) Happiness (E) Surprise (F) Disgust
What is the most objective measure of emotion?
physiological response.
How is emotion regulation measured in the lab?
(3) measures during emotion induction and the period following to see how quick people bounce back.
What are (4) brain regions involved in emotion and emotion regulation?
(A) Amygdala:
is an alerting system that
responds to the presence
of emotional cue in our
environment. The stronger
the amygdala response the
more intense the cue.
(B) Ventral Stratium:
a series of brain structures
that respond to rewarding
stimuli.
(C) Insula:
inner brain region which
receives physical signals
from the body and is
important in generating
emotional feelings.
(D) Prefrontal Cortex:
a control centre that can
alter brain function in other
areas to regulate behaviour
so we can achieve our
goals.
*there is no one region responsible for emotion. Emotion is due to coordinated effort form a network of brain structures.
which two subcortical brain structures coordinate to alert us to emotional stimuli in our environment?
amygdala and ventral stratium
what is the process of emotion regulation in the (4) brain structures?
subcortical brain regions such as the amygdala and the ventral striatum (reward) coordinate their efforts and alert us to emotional cues in our environment. The insula monitors physiological changes in the body and translates it into emotional feelings. Finally, the prefrontal cortex integrates this information and uses it to guide behaviour and control the emotional response.
The Gross Emotion Regulation Model is used as….
a framework to help us think about all the different tools we have at our disposal to help us process and control our emotions.
Five steps in the emotion regulation model?
- Situation Selection: deciding what situations I put myself in, can avoid situations which elicit unwanted emotional response. If you cannot avoid the situation itself, you can instead avoid thinking certain thoughts e.g., avoidance.
- Situation Modification: altering how I can control aspects of our environment to avoid triggering an emotional response e.g., where I sit at a dinner party. Includes problem solving ER strategies that can be basic or more complex.
- Attentional Deployment: what I choose to focus on in my environment instead of my emotions e.g., choose to focus on an interesting convocation I’m having instead of my ex. Includes, rumination as a maladaptive ER in which we focus and attend to the emotion itself.
- Cognitive Reappraisal: reframe or reappraise the situation into a more positive light in order to reduce its emotional impact e.g., “it’s just a test”.
• Emotional Suppression: when we try to suppress our emotional expression of our experience, we still feel it, but we try to make sure we don’t communicate it through our body language. Often used to protect other people’s feelings or avoid an undesirable conversation or situation.
*stages in emotion generation in which we can intervene with an adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation stratergy
Emotion regulation strategies that are antecedent or response?
anteecedent: > situation selection > situation modification > attentional deployment > cognitive reappraisal
response:
> emotional suppression
Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies:
1. Avoidance: “I avoid emotional situations and emotional thoughts” i.e., avoid thinking or seeing your ex (distraction).
2. Rumination:
“I obsess about my
emotional thoughts”
(dwelling on experience and
causes).
- Suppression:
“I control my emotions by
not expressing them”.
Adaptive emotion regulation strategies:
- Problem-Solving:
“I alter situations in order to
control my emotions” - Reappraisal:
“I control my emotions by
changing how I think about a
situation”
3. Acceptance:
“I accept my emotions, and
realize that they will pass”
(not in Gross’s model but is
becoming an increasingly
popular strategy in the
literature as mindfulness
becomes more popular).
The Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Strategies and Psychological Disorders:
• Maladaptive strategies are (+) correlated with psychological disorders. • Adaptive strategies are (-) correlated with psychological disorders. • Having maladaptive strategies are more important than the absence of adaptive strategies. • Acceptance showed no significant relationship with psychopathology. • Emotion Regulation strategies can make people more resilient (protective factor) or more vulnerable (risk factor) to psychopathology.
We know Stress causes Depression but why do some people develop depression and others don’t?
The Diathesis- Stress Hypothesis of Depression:
(A) Diathesis:
a. A predisposition within an
individual that makes them
vulnerable or resilient to
stress.
E.g., genetics, family history,
neurological function and
emotion regulation
strategies.
(B) Stress is more likely to lead
to depression in those
people who have the
diathesis.
James Gross (1998) antecedent and response focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression and physiology
reading findings:
(A) Feelings:
control group showed the
highest levels of disgust,
emotion suppression group
showed similar levels of
disgust. Cognitive
reappraisal showed the
lowest levels of disgust.
*only cognitive reappraisal
reduced the subjective
experience of disgust but
suppression did not!
(B) Behaviour (Facial
Expressions):
highest levels of disgust in
control condition.
Significantly lower levels of
disgust in facial
expressions of cognitive
and suppression.
*cognitive reappraisal’s
decrease reflects there
reduced subjective
experience of disgust
(c) Physiological (galvanic skin
response):
reappraisal, skin response
continually decreases
throughout the duration of
the film and reaches
baseline by the time the film
finishes.
Suppression, have the
highest arousal levels
during the film which slowly
tappers off (slow to
recover).
**cog. reap. reduces subjective experience, behaviour and physiological components of emotion. **supp. reduces expression of emotion but does not influence the subjective experience and actually increases physiological response.
Which strategy is better cognitive reappraisal or emotion suppression?
cognitive reappraisal, intervention earlier in the emotion generation process is better i.e. antecedent.
FMRI is ___ and used to ___.
FMRI (Functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging system) scanning whilst participants watch an emotional film and engage in emotional regulations strategies.
The Neural Bases of Emotion Regulation: Reappraisal and Suppression of Negative Emotion (Readding Findings)
(A) Feelings:
cognitive reappraisal
reduces the subjective
feeling of disgust and
suppression does not.
(B) Behaviour:
both cognitive reappraisal
and emotion suppression
reduced facial expressions
of disgust but suppression
did more.
(C) Physiological:
> Amygdala: cognitive reappraisal's levels of response decreased indicating they found it less and less distressing. Emotion suppression showed a steady increase in amygdala response.
> Insula: cognitive reappraisal showed no increase. emotion suppression showed and bigger response then the control condition.
> Prefrontal Cortex: cognitive reappraisal showed increase in the upper region of the PFC, dorsal PFC. emotion suppression showed an increase in the lower region of PFC, ventral PFC.
**cognitive reappraisal: reduction in amygdala responding, no change in insula activity and an increase in dorsal PFC. **emotion suppression: increase in amygdala response, high levels of insula activity and an increase in ventral PFC.
Antecedent-focused is believed to effect ___ health and response-focused is believed to effect ___ health.
anteecendent-focused = cognitive reappraisal = better psychological health.
response-focused = emotion suppression = worse physical health.
emotion suppression effects ___ relationships by ___ responses in you and your partner.
interpersonal relationships and increases physiological responses in you and your partner.
