Emotion

The role of executive function in cognitive reappraisal: A meta-analytic review.
Cognitive reappraisal refers to the reinterpretation of a situation to alter its emotional meaning. Theoretically, executive functions (EFs), such as inhibition, updating, and shifting, are core elements of reappraisal processes. However, empirical studies have yielded inconsistent evidence as to whether and to what extent EFs are associated with reappraisal. To address this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis of the literature in which 179 effect sizes from 59 independent samples (N = 4,703) were included. Using random-effects metaregression with robust-variance estimates and small-sample corrections, we also examined whether variation in effect sizes could be accounted for by potential moderators, such as the way reappraisal was assessed (i.e., questionnaires vs. task-based measures) and the type of stimuli used in EF tasks (i.e., affective vs. nonaffective). Overall, results indicate relatively small to typical associations between reappraisal and all three EFs (rs = .13–.19). While the way reappraisal was measured did not moderate any of the relations between EF and reappraisal, we found stronger relations between inhibition and reappraisal when EF was assessed using tasks that involved affective, relative to nonaffective, stimuli. Our meta-analytic findings offer modest support for the idea that EFs are cognitive constituents of reappraisal processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The development of a novel scale to assess intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies: The Emotion Regulation Strategy Scale (ERSS).
Existing emotion regulation research focuses on how individuals use different strategies to manage their own emotions—also called intra-personal emotion regulation. However, people often leverage connections with others to regulate their own emotions—interpersonal emotion regulation. The goal of the present studies was to develop a comprehensive and efficient scale—the Emotion Regulation Strategies Scale (ERSS)—to assess nine specific emotion regulation strategies that individuals use both intra-personally and interpersonally. These emotion regulation strategies were cognitive reappraisal, distraction, situation selection, problem solving, acceptance, calming, savoring, rumination, and expressive suppression. Data were collected between 2020 and 2022. Study 1 adopted a qualitative approach to establish original scale items. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 confirmed a nine-factor solution for both the intra- and the interpersonal scales and finalized scale items. A second confirmatory factor analysis in Study 3 found the ERSS for both the intra-personal and interpersonal scale models to possess good model fit. Correlations from Study 3 showed the ERSS subscales to be related in expected ways to existing emotion regulation scales, yet not redundant with these scales. The degree to which individuals used the range of intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies assessed on the ERSS also related to the levels of clinical symptoms. The ERSS represents a comprehensive novel scale that can flexibly assess a range of specific emotion regulation strategies used both intra- and interpersonally. Future work should be conducted using the ERSS cross culturally and in clinical samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Types of social media use are differentially associated with trait and momentary affect.
Research on how social media use (SMU) is associated with emotion is equivocal, possibly because the factor structure of SMU had not been adequately identified. Prior research has found support for four SMU types: belief-based (e.g., sharing opinions), comparison-based (e.g., body comparison), image-based (e.g., monitoring likes), and consumption-based (e.g., watching videos). In this study, we examined how participants’ weekly engagement in each SMU type was associated with trait affect and how engagement in each type in real time was related to changes in momentary affect (preregistered: https://osf.io/qupf3/). A total of 382 college students in the spring of 2022 reported on the extent to which they engaged in each SMU type over the last week and their trait affect. They also engaged in each SMU type (randomized) for 3 min, rating their affect before and after. Only comparison-based SMU showed the same pattern of associations at trait and momentary levels, being associated with lower positive affect and higher negative affect (NA) at both timescales. Image- and consumption-based SMU were associated with higher trait NA, but resulted in people feeling better in real time. Belief-based SMU was associated with higher trait positive affect and NA, but made people feel worse in real time. Understanding how SMU types are associated with emotional experiences depends on the timeframe. Findings hold important implications for research examining how SMU is associated with mental health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Longitudinal associations between changes in peer victimization and emotion dysregulation across adolescence.
Emotion dysregulation emerges from an interaction between individual factors and environmental factors. Changes in biological, cognitive, and social systems that characterize adolescence create a complex array of environmental factors contributing to emotion dysregulation during this developmental period. In particular, peer victimization (PV) has long-term consequences for emotion dysregulation. Yet, previous research has also indicated that emotion dysregulation can be both an antecedent to and outcome of PV. The present study evaluated reciprocal associations between longitudinal changes within repeated measures of PV and emotion dysregulation across adolescence and into young adulthood. The sample included 167 adolescents (53% male, Mage = 14.07 years at Time 1) who participated in a longitudinal study across five time points, with approximately 1 year between each assessment. Latent change score modeling was used to examine reciprocal associations between PV and emotion dysregulation. Results emphasize bidirectional associations between PV and emotion dysregulation. Consistent with social information processing theory, greater emotion dysregulation predicted greater relational and overt victimization over time. Moreover, higher overt victimization predicted increases in emotion dysregulation. Our results offer insights toward developmentally informed longitudinal, transactional models linking negative social environments, and emotion dysregulation development across adolescence and into young adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Holiday or hell? Emotion regulation and memory of depressive symptoms during lockdown.
The ongoing repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic provide an unparalleled context to examine how distressing events are remembered. Prior theory and research suggest that (a) distress during lockdowns may fade and be remembered as less distressing, or remain salient and be remembered as more distressing, than initially experienced and (b) emotional suppression and cognitive reappraisal may predict these memory biases. We test these possibilities by assessing depressive symptoms and emotion regulation during two lockdowns: at the start of the pandemic (Lockdown 2020) and 17 months later (Lockdown 2021) in a sample of parents with young children (N = 272). We assessed tracking accuracy, directional bias, and projection bias in memory of depressive symptoms in Lockdown 2020, and the moderating role of emotion regulation at the time of encoding (Lockdown 2020) and recall (Lockdown 2021). People experiencing more depressive symptoms later in the pandemic (2021) remembered the start of the pandemic (2020) to involve more depressive symptoms than initially experienced (projection bias). People engaging in greater emotional suppression at recall (2021) were less likely to project their current depressive symptoms onto memory of the prior lockdown (lower projection bias) and remembered feeling lower depressive symptoms than initially experienced (underestimation directional bias). By contrast, people engaging in cognitive reappraisal at recall (2021) remembered feeling greater depressive symptoms than they initially experienced (overestimation directional bias). These unexpected results indicate that emotion regulation may shape memory of emotion during real-life challenges differently than patterns observed in lab-based research and may reflect helpful coping with life events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Differentiating anticipated and anticipatory emotions and their sensitivity to depressive symptoms.
Anticipated emotions are the feelings one expects if a hypothetical future event were to occur, whereas anticipatory emotions are those one experiences right now while imagining the event. There has been little direct comparison of these two forms of future-oriented emotion, and authors have typically focused on positive emotions (e.g., pleasure). Besides, their sensitivity to depressive symptoms—which may help to explain motivational problems in depression—has only recently been investigated (e.g., Anderson et al., 2023; Gamble et al., 2021). The present study (conducted September–November 2022) used innovative picture-and-text vignettes depicting everyday positive and negative future events, to which participants rated their anticipated and anticipatory responses on separate dimensions of valence (i.e., how positive or negative) and arousal (i.e., emotional intensity). Based on prior literature, anticipatory emotions were expected to be correlated with, yet weaker than, anticipated emotions, reflecting a conceptualization of anticipatory emotions as a “foretaste” of the affective response one expects in the future. We also predicted that high depressive symptoms would coincide with diminished emotion ratings overall and specifically for anticipatory emotions (tightly coupled with event expectations; Carrera et al., 2012). Results largely supported these preregistered predictions, yet anticipatory emotions (positive and negative) were only weaker in more highly depressed participants. Depressive symptoms may therefore affect how one currently feels about future possibilities without altering one’s expectations of how such events would actually feel. Implications and future research objectives arising from this are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Go with your gut! The beneficial mood effects of intuitive decisions.
People make countless decisions every day. We explored the self-regulatory function of decisions and assumed that the very act of making a decision in everyday life enhances people’s mood. We expected that this decision-related mood change would be more pronounced for intuitive decisions than for analytical ones. The ease of making a decision and the feeling of rightness were expected to mediate the effect of intuitive (vs. analytical) decisions on participants’ mood. In a preregistered experimental experience sampling study, participants from the general population were asked to report when they were about to make an everyday decision over the course of 14 days (N = 256 participants, 6,779 decisions). For each decision, participants were randomly instructed to decide either based on their intuition or based on careful analysis. We assessed several variables before and immediately after the decision. Participants also reported retrospectively on their choices in voluntary follow-up assessments. Making a decision per se immediately enhanced participants’ mood. This mood enhancement was stronger for intuitive compared to analytic decisions and persisted until follow-up. Ease of decision, but not feeling of rightness, mediated this effect. Intuitive decisions compared to analytic decisions were more likely to be implemented and led to greater satisfaction and pleasantness of the chosen option. Having more options for a particular decision led to generally higher mood improvement and satisfaction. This is the first empirical demonstration showing that using one’s gut has beneficial effects in everyday life. Study limitations and implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotional scenes as context in emotional expression recognition: The role of emotion or valence match.
Emotion recognition is influenced by contextual information such as social category cues or background scenes. However, past studies yielded mixed findings regarding whether broad valence or specific emotion matches drive context effects and how multiple sources of contextual information may influence emotion recognition. To address these questions, participants were asked to categorize expressions on male and female faces posing happiness and anger and happiness and fear on pleasant and fearful backgrounds (Experiment 1, conducted in 2019), fearful and disgusted expressions on fear and disgust eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 2, conducted in 2022), and fearful and sad expressions on fear and sadness eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 3, conducted in 2022). In Experiment 1 (where stimuli varied in valence), a broad valence match effect was observed. Faster recognition of happiness than fear and anger was more pronounced in pleasant compared to fearful scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3 (where stimuli were negative in valence), specific emotion match effects were observed. Faster recognition occurred when expression and background were emotionally congruent. In Experiments 1 and 3, poser sex independently moderated emotional expression recognition speed. These results suggest that the effect of emotional scenes on facial emotion recognition is mediated by a match in valence when broad valence is task-relevant. Specific emotion matches drive context effects when participants categorize expressions of a single valence. Looking at the influence of background contexts and poser sex together suggests that these two sources of contextual information have an independent rather than an interactive influence on emotional expression recognition speed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
A brief reappraisal intervention leads to durable affective benefits.
People who report frequently using cognitive reappraisal to decrease the impact of potentially upsetting situations report better affective functioning than people who report using cognitive reappraisal less frequently. However, most work linking everyday reappraisal use to affective outcomes has been correlational, making causal inference difficult. In this study, we examined whether 2 weeks of daily practice of reappraising negatively valenced personally relevant events would improve affective functioning compared with a wait-list control. Data were collected between 2021 and 2022 from a sample mainly comprised of females (82%) and who identified as Asian (35%) or White/Caucasian (40%). Our planned analyses indicated that reappraisal decreased depressive symptoms and perceived stress as well as increased life satisfaction both immediately and 4 weeks postintervention. Reductions in depressive symptoms and perceived stress were mediated by increases in reappraisal self-efficacy. These findings support the causal efficacy of brief reappraisal training. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The transfer of social threat learning to decision making is robust to extinction.
Through traditional mass media and online social media, we are almost constantly exposed to second-hand experiences of trauma and violence, providing ample opportunities for us to learn about threats through social means. This social threat learning can influence instrumental decision making through a social learning to decision-making transfer process, resembling the so-called Pavlovian to instrumental transfer effect, resulting in consequences that can be maladaptive. Here, we assessed if this influence could be diminished by extinction learning, a procedure where a previously threatening stimulus is learned to be safe, and thereby mitigate possible maladaptive consequences. To this end, we recruited 251 participants to undergo a social threat learning procedure (where they observed someone else receive electric shocks to one out of two images), followed by either a social or direct extinction procedure (in which no shocks were given), before conducting an instrumental decision-making task to measure the strength of the transfer effect. Based on theoretical considerations and previous literature, we proposed two competing hypotheses: (a) extinction learning would diminish the transfer effect or (b) the transfer effect would be robust to extinction. Our results clearly demonstrate that the social to instrumental transfer effect is remarkedly robust to extinction, supporting the second hypotheses. Irrespective of whether extinction was carried out through direct experience or social means, learning about threats through second-hand aversive experiences strongly influence instrumental behavior, suggesting that potentially maladaptive effects of social threat learning are challenging to diminish. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Individual differences in emotion prediction and implications for social success.
The social world requires people to predict others’ thoughts, feelings, and actions. People who successfully predict others’ emotions experience significant social advantages. What makes a person good at predicting emotions? To predict others’ future emotional states, a person must know how one emotion transitions to the next. People learn how emotions transition from at least two sources: (a) internal information, or one’s own emotion experiences, and (b) external information, such as the social cues detected in a person’s face. Across five studies collected between 2018 and 2020, we find evidence that both sources of information are related to accurate emotion prediction: individuals with atypical personal emotion transitions, difficulty understanding their own emotional experiences, and impaired emotion perception displayed impaired emotion prediction. This ability to predict others’ emotions has real-world social implications. Individuals who make accurate emotion predictions have better relationships with their friends and communities and experience less loneliness. In contrast, disruptions in both internal and external information sources explain prediction inaccuracy in individuals with social difficulties, specifically with social communication difficulties common in autism spectrum disorder. These findings provide evidence that successful emotion prediction, which relies on the perception of accurate internal and external data about how emotions transition, may be key to social success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Positive autobiographical memories to counteract low mood in remitted depression: A longitudinal daily-life investigation.
Positive autobiographical memories (AMs) have the potential to repair low mood, but previously depressed individuals have difficulty leveraging their positive AMs for emotion regulation purposes. We examined whether previously depressed individuals benefit from guided, deliberate recollection of preselected AMs to counteract low mood in daily life, utilizing individuals’ smartphones to facilitate recollection. Sixty participants enrolled in 2020 were randomly allocated to retrieval of positive or everyday activity AMs and completed ecological momentary assessment of emotional experience for 3 weeks. Participants first created a pool of six memories for the digital AM diary. This was followed by a training week with two recollection tasks daily and a 2-week follow-up period where the diary could be used spontaneously. The positive condition experienced a greater increase in feelings of happiness and a greater decrease in feelings of sadness from pre- to post-AM recollection. While participants in the positive condition used the AM technique more frequently overall during the 2-week follow-up, the effect of condition was moderated by changes in feelings of sadness. The more participants experienced an emotional benefit during the training week, the more they used it spontaneously. Emotional vividness of untrained positive AMs at the 2-week follow-up differed depending on whether they were assessed before or after the first pandemic lockdown. Residual depressive symptoms decreased in both conditions over the study course, while mental well-being remained unchanged. Strengthening positive, self-affirming AMs in daily life may provide a tool to support regulation of transient low mood in those remitted from depression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotion concordance is higher among immigrants from more individualist cultures: Implications for cultural differences in adherence to emotion norms.
Recent findings show that in more individualist cultures, people’s emotions are more homogenous and more concordant with the emotions of others in their culture. These findings have been interpreted as evidence that adherence to emotion norms is greater in more individualist cultures. This investigation examined a consequence of this to the acquisition of emotion norms. If immigrants from more individualist cultures are more likely to adhere to emotion norms, they should be more sensitive to the emotion norms of their host culture and will acquire them more readily. Therefore, we expected that immigrants from more individualist cultures would acquire the emotion norms of their host culture to a greater extent than immigrants from less individualist cultures. This hypothesis was supported in two studies with diverse samples of immigrants (N > 10,000) that assessed emotion concordance with one’s host culture, an implicit measure of the acquisition of emotion norms. We ruled out alternative explanations, such as cultural tightness and the cultural distance between host cultures and heritage cultures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
How bad becomes good: A neurocomputational model of affect-informed choice.
People often draw on their current affective experience to inform their decisions, yet little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this process. Understanding them has important implications for many big questions in both the affective and decision sciences. Do the same neural circuits that generate affect generate value? What differentiates people who have greater contextual flexibility in their reliance on affect? Do affective choices invoke processes that are distinct from less affective choices? To investigate these questions, we developed a neurocomputational model of affect-informed choice, in which people convert subjective affect into context-sensitive decision value through a process of weighted evidence accumulation. We then tested model predictions by recording electroencephalography and facial electromyography during a novel affective choice paradigm in a sample of racially diverse undergraduate participants (data collected in 2018–2019). In addition to validating our model, we found that generation of affective responses occurs earlier than, and is neurally distinct from, valuation of that affect. Moreover, individual differences in contextual flexibility of affective weighting correlated only with later valuation processes, not earlier affect generation processes. Our results have important theoretical implications for emotion, emotion regulation, and decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Examining demand effects on direct and indirect affect measures in affect induction procedures.
Affect induction procedures are effectively implemented in psychological research. However, because participants are typically asked to self-report their affect immediately after viewing emotional stimuli, the goal of eliciting affect is relatively easy for participants to infer, making their responses susceptible to demand effects. To examine this demand effect, research has used an unrelated-studies paradigm, in which participants are led to believe that they are participating in two different, unrelated studies. While this paradigm has been used in some studies using affect induction procedures, none have examined the extent of demand effects in affect induction procedures. To do so, we conducted six online experiments (N = 170, N = 254, N = 664, N = 260, N = 239, N = 249) by contrasting an unrelated- with a related-studies design. The participants in the related-studies condition were to believe that the affect measurement after the induction belonged to the same pretest as the affect induction, whereas the participants in the unrelated-studies condition were to believe that this measurement was part of a second, unrelated pretest. We found that a related- versus unrelated-studies design produced a significant demand effect for both positive and negative affect, as indicated by greater increases in positive and negative affect in the related-studies compared with the unrelated-studies condition. Demand effects were also found on some indirect measures of affect, as reflected by a significantly smaller self-reported momentary thought–action repertoire, but not by worse memory performance or more distrust in the related-studies condition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotional clarity in daily life is associated with reduced indecisiveness and greater goal pursuit.
Affect-as-information theory posits that understanding of one’s emotions (i.e., emotional clarity) can be leveraged to make decisions and attain goals. Furthermore, recent work has emphasized the dynamic nature of emotional clarity and its fluctuations in daily life. Therefore, we sought to test how momentary emotional clarity, experienced in everyday life, would be associated with levels of indecisiveness and goal pursuit. Following affect-as-information, we hypothesized that emotional clarity would be associated with lower indecisiveness but greater goal pursuit. We also hypothesized that indecisiveness would be associated with less goal pursuit with momentary emotional clarity being a potential moderator of this association. Adults (N = 215, Mage = 44.3) experiencing a range of depression, a disorder characterized by indecisiveness, completed a self-report measure of indecisiveness and 2 weeks of experience sampling assessing momentary emotional clarity, goal pursuit, and negative affect. Momentary emotional clarity showed robust links to lower indecisiveness and greater goal pursuit that were not accounted for by negative affect. We did not observe a link between indecisiveness and goal pursuit. Emotional clarity appears to play a role in motivational and cognitive processes that unfold in daily life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Couple conflict observed: Emotions in Belgium and Japan.
In the present study, we examined cultural variation in couples’ emotions during disagreement. We coded the emotions of 58 Belgian and 80 Japanese couples using the Specific Affect Coding System. We observed more anger and domineering, but less fear/tension and other-validation in Belgian than in Japanese couples. Moreover, in Japanese couples, culturally typical emotions were associated with higher conflict resolution and relationship satisfaction. The findings suggest meaningful cultural differences in couples’ observed emotions during disagreement, as they can be understood from the prevailing relationship ideals in each culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
The face pareidolia illusion drives a happy face advantage that is dependent on perceived gender.
The happy face advantage, the faster recognition of happy than of negative, angry or fearful, emotional expressions, has been reliably found and is modulated by social category cues, such as perceived gender, that is, is larger on female than on male faces. In this study, we tested whether this pattern of results is unique to human faces by investigating whether ambient examples of face pareidolia can also evoke a happy face advantage that is dependent on perceived gender. “Face pareidolia” describes the illusion of facial structure on inanimate objects, such as a tree trunk or a piece of burnt toast. While it has been shown that these illusory faces have expressions that can be recognized by participants, it is unknown whether they drive the same behavioral biases as real facial expressions. Thus, we measured the speed and accuracy with which the expressions of illusory faces that are perceived as female or male are recognized as happy or angry. We found a robust happy face advantage for illusory faces that were rated as more feminine in appearance. Concomitantly, we also found a robust angry face advantage for illusory faces that were rated as more masculine in appearance. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that illusory faces confer the same behavioral advantages as human faces. They also suggest that both perceived emotion and perceived gender are powerful socioevaluative dimensions that are extracted from visual stimuli that merely resemble human faces. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Emotion - Vol 24, Iss 7