Lecture 11: Chapter 15 - Emotion Regulation Flashcards
With respect to Sigmund Freud’s Structure of Personality, what does the ID consist of?
Id: “dark inaccessible part of personality” containing our instinctual needs
- Fundamental drives that cannot be often expressed in
civilized society (i.e. libido)
- E.g. Oedipus/Electra complex
With respect to Sigmund Freud’s Structure of Personality, what does the Superego consist of?
Superego: standards that other people have imposed on us and have internalized
- Can be all 3 levels of consciousness
With respect to Sigmund Freud’s Structure of Personality, what is the Ego?
- Reconciles the external world, the superego, and ID’s needs
- Parts of ego are unconscious (e.g. walking), preconscious (inhibited thoughts), as well as conscious
Describe the 3 types of anxiety if the ego is unable to meets needs of other 3 factors
Realistic Anxiety: external world
Moral Anxiety: super-ego
Neurotic Anxiety: id
Ego copes with tension using a series of _____ ____ _____?
Ego defense mechanisms: psychological regulation strategies that serve to resolve the tension between the id and the superego
- Keeps disturbing wishes and desires hidden from
consciousness
Describe the 2 strengths of Freud’s defense mechanism theory
- Offers a way to describe and categorize different coping strategies
- Provides clearly defined and labeled constructs, so
that different investigators can study the same
processes and compare the results - Comparisons can be made among the various ego defense mechanisms in terms of their overall psychological health
George Vaillant (1977) suggested that Freud’s defense mechanisms could be be organized into 4 categories reflecting different stages of maturity, with differing effects on psychological and life outcomes. Describe the first category
- Psychotic Defenses: common in young children, indicate trauma or psychopathology in adults (e.g. denial)
- Most thoroughly divorced from reality
- May improve mood, but leave one unequipped to deal
with the world as it actually is
George Vaillant (1977) suggested that Freud’s defense mechanisms could be be organized into 4 categories reflecting different stages of maturity, with differing effects on psychological and life outcomes. Describe the second category
- Immature Defenses: typical in adolescents but unhealthy in adults, include avoiding full acknowledgement of reality of situation, but the avoidance is limited to:
- Inaccurate explanations for the problem (e.g.
projection) - Implausible solutions to problem (e.g. fantasy)
- Inaccurate explanations for the problem (e.g.
George Vaillant (1977) suggested that Freud’s defense mechanisms could be be organized into 4 categories reflecting different stages of maturity, with differing effects on psychological and life outcomes. Describe the third category
- Neurotic defenses: defenses that that will alleviate anxiety, or at least point it in a less destructive manner, but will not solve the problem at hand
- Will not hurt oneself, but will not help either, act
unconsciously
- Most often used by adults since they are socially
acceptable
- E.g. displacement, intellectualization, reaction
formation, repression
George Vaillant (1977) suggested that Freud’s defense mechanisms could be be organized into 4 categories reflecting different stages of maturity, with differing effects on psychological and life outcomes. Describe the fourth category
- Mature defense: healthiest defenses because they are intentional and/or lead to prosocial, constructive behaviour (e.g. suppression, sublimation)
Describe the 4 weaknesses of Freud’s defense mechanism theory
- Defined defense mechanisms as dealing with the guilt and anxiety associated socially-unacceptable sexual and physical desires, but not solid evidence to support theory
- Weak scientific evidence to explain defense mechanisms like repression and projection
- Freud would often use the same clinical example to support different and even contradictory conclusions
- Does not include the full range of ways one copes with emotional situations
- Limited to only socially unacceptable desires that
could not (or at least should not) ever be fulfilled - Does not considered situations where practical
solutions are available (eg: coping when losing a job)
- Limited to only socially unacceptable desires that
James Gross (2002) offered the _____ ____ __ _____ regulation to help think about and classify emotions
Process model of emotion
The Process model of emotion regulation begins with certain assumptions about emotions and how they play out including (4):
- We enter a particular situations
- We pay attention to certain aspects of the situation
- We appraise those aspects of the situation in a way that facilitates a particular emotional response
- We experience a full-blown emotion
- Includes physiological changes, behaviour impulses,
and subjective feelings
- Includes physiological changes, behaviour impulses,
Order of events can vary, and sometimes we experience some aspects of emotion without others
What is the first (out of 3) main strategy for regulating emotion
- Situation-focused strategies: focused on how to control the situation
- E.g. Choosing to be in one situation rather than
another - E.g. Changed the situation in some manner
- E.g. Choosing to be in one situation rather than
What is the second (out of 3) main strategy for regulating emotion
- Cognition-focused strategies
- Selectively attend to certain aspects of the situation
- Change the way they think about the situation
- Encourage some emotions and/or deter others
What is the third main strategy for regulating emotion
- Response-focused strategies
Alter the effects of emotions once they have already started
- Presumes the person is already experiencing an
emotion and wants some aspect of it to change
- E.g. Talking about emotion to get it out of system
- E.g. Turn off emotional experience or substitute a
different emotion
- E.g. Attempting to suppress the expression of an
emotion so other people can’t see what you are
feeling
With respect to situation-focused strategies, distinguish between the two methods in controlling the emotion-eliciting situation
- Situation selection
- Situation modification
Older adults experience higher levels of well-being as they age because they are less likely to put up with unpleasant situations, especially for the sake of some future benefit. This illustrates which method in controlling the emotion-eliciting situation (with respect to situation-focused strategies)?
- Situation selection: we decide whether to enter a situation that is likely to elicit a
particular emotion
Completely avoiding unpleasant situations (situation selection) is not always a realistic option. Why?
- Extreme use of situation selection limits people’s opportunities and relationships
- May fail to keep their lives and health in order by avoiding situations
- People who reported more avoidance-based coping
in the first year of clinical assessment experienced a
greater number of life stressors over the next 4 years - Later predicted increased depressive symptoms
Veterans with PTSD were more likely to use avoidant
coping, but avoidant coping also predicted
subsequent increases in PTSD symptoms
- People who reported more avoidance-based coping
With respect to situation-focused strategies, describe the situation modification method in controlling the emotion-eliciting situation
- Situation modification: we enter the situation, but take steps to change it
- Often referred to as active coping, but this term is
limited to negative situations where one is trying to
reduce distress - People who often use situation modification or active
coping to regulate their emotions tend to have better
than average physical health and psychological well-
being
- Often referred to as active coping, but this term is
People who feel they have little control over situations are at greater risk for ______than are those with a stronger sense of control
Depression
E.g. professor calling upon students randomly, in alphabetical order, or those that raise their hand
- Describe the methods of Glass, Singer, and Pennebaker’s (1977) study
- Had participants do some difficult proofreading while seated next to a device that makes unpredictable, sudden, loud, annoying sounds.
- Told the experiment was to examine the effects of that noise on your behavior
- Half of participants told there is an escape button
that can be pressed to turn off noise if it becomes
unbearable - Urged not to press the button unless necessary, but
button there just in case
- Half of participants told there is an escape button
- Describe the findings of Glass, Singer, and Pennebaker’s (1977) study and what they suggest
Few participants pressed the button, but participants who had the escape button performed better on the proofreading tasks than participants who were not offered an escape
Thus, even thinking you have some control over a situation, makes it less stressful
*Describe the methods of Salomons, Johnstone, Backonja, and Davidson’s (2004) study
Gave participants a series of painfully hot stimuli to their forearms
- One group told that they could decrease the duration of a stimulus from 5 s → 2 s if they manipulated a joystick quickly enough in the correct direction
- No actual control, duration of the stimulus varied
randomly
- Because they were trying hard with the joystick, they
interpreted every short stimulus as a reward for a
quick enough response
*Describe the findings of Salomons, Johnstone, Backonja, and Davidson’s (2004) study
Measurements of brain activity using fMRI indicated less arousal in several pain-sensitive brain areas and less experience of pain in participants who thought they had control
*In a follow-up study, Salomons and colleagues (2015) found that participants who believed they had control:
- Reported less intense feelings of pain
- Showed weaker activation of the amygdala (commonly activated in negative emotion)
- Showed stronger activity of the nucleus accumbens (associated with perception of reward, likely reflecting perceived success in deflecting the pain),
- Showed increased regulation of amygdala and nucleus accumbens by the prefrontal cortex (typically activated during tasks requiring self-regulation)
When patients are given a sense of prediction and control over their illness (e.g. told when and how surgery will occur, how long it will last, chances for success and length of recovery). Their ___ is much less severe and they have better chances of a _____ ______ _____
- Their anxiety is much less severe
- They have better chances of a better medical outcome
What are 3 specific strategies for gaining a sense of control?
- Visualize doing the work that would lead to the prizes and honors
- If you expect to face a future challenge, one can gain a sense of control by cognitively rehearsing for how to handle a stressful situation (e.g. preparing for unpleasant conversation by imagining people’s responses to your statements)
- Psychological inoculation: dealing with a stressor by exposing yourself to milder versions of the stressful events
- E.g. Soldiers are required to practice combat skills
under realistic but non-life-threatening conditions
- E.g. Soldiers are required to practice combat skills
With respect to the second main strategy for regulating emotion, cognition-focused strategies, describe how attention control works
Attentional Control: directing one’s attention away from stimuli and thoughts likely to elicit unwanted emotions
- E.g. looking away from friend’s pet tarantula instead
of leaving room (situation selection) or asking your
host to move the spider to another room (situation
modification)
*Describe the methods of Ayduk and colleagues (2002) study on the usefulness of attentional control for emotion regulation
Asked participants to vividly remember an experience in which someone else had rejected them
- Half of participants encouraged to focus their
attention on their emotions and physiological
sensations while remembering
- Half of participants encouraged to focus their
attention on features of the room in which the
rejection took place
- After reliving experience, participants completed three more tasks:
- Did a reaction time task where they decided whether
strings of letters were words or not words, as quickly
as possible.
- Included words related to anger, if angry would
react quicker to them
- Reported ratings of their angry mood
- Wrote essay about the rejection experience they had just relived
*Describe the results from Ayduk and colleagues (2002) study on the usefulness of attentional control for emotion regulation
- Those focusing on characteristics of the room in their memories identified hostility-related words more slowly, reported fewer angry feelings, and wrote less about feeling angry and hurt in their essays
*Describe the methods of Reijntnes and colleagues’ (2006) study on the usefulness of attentional control for emotion regulation
- Had children played a game based on the Survivor television show
- Some children (randomly assigned) were told they
had been voted out of the game - Then, during a delay before a second task, children
spent the time quietly thinking or engaging in a
distraction (e.g. reading comic books or listening to
music)
- Some children (randomly assigned) were told they
*Describe the results of Reijntnes and colleagues’ (2006) study on the usefulness of attentional control for emotion regulation
The more time they spent on the distraction, the more their mood improved, as well as their ability to focus on the second task
*People can run out of ability to control their attention if they are fatigued or have been controlling their thoughts for too long. Suppressing attention to already-active thoughts and stimuli may be an especially difficult form of cognitive control
Describe the methods of Wegner and colleagues’ (1987) study on such
Asked participants to avoid thinking about white bears for 5 minutes, but to ring a bell if they did
*Describe the findings from Wegner and colleagues’ (1987) study
- Participants rang the bell more times than a group of participants who were asked to think about white bears
- Thus, trying to avoid thinking about something makes that idea more intrusive
*Implications for people’s ability to regulate attention to unpleasant stimuli are underscored by Holmes, Mogg, de Fockert, Nielsen, and Bradley’s (2014) study. Describe their methods
- Asked participants looked at pairs of faces, one angry and one neutral, on a computer screen and pressed a key when a dot replaced one photo
- At the same time, they were asked to hold an easy or
difficult string of numbers in working memory (more
effort for more difficult words)
- At the same time, they were asked to hold an easy or
- Used EEG to measure the magnitude of an eventrelated electrical potential in the hemisphere opposite of where the angry face appears (the N2pc ERP), (indicate intensity of attention)
*Implications for people’s ability to regulate attention to unpleasant stimuli are underscored by Holmes, Mogg, de Fockert, Nielsen, and Bradley’s (2014) study. Describe their results
- Participants who were trying to remember more difficult numbers were slower to respond to dots replacing the neutral faces paired with angry faces
- Had a harder time pulling attention away from the
threatening image
- Had a harder time pulling attention away from the
- Showed more pronounced EEG responses to angry faces, suggesting that these faces captured their attention more strongly
Training in _____ _____ may increase people’s attentional control and, in turn, their ability to regulate their emotions
Mindfulness meditation
- Learning to focus nonjudgmentally on one’s current state (e.g., paying attention to breathing) and/or maintain an open-minded attitude toward the present moment
- Extensive mindfulness training can help:
- Enhance people’s cognitive control, or executive
function
- Reduce their tendency to ruminate on their
problems
- Alleviate anxiety and depression symptoms
Distraction (cognition-focused strategy): trying to replace unpleasant thoughts with some alternative thought or activity can be advantageous but it does reduce the likelihood that you will take some practical approach to improving the situation. Thus, If exposed to the distressing situation again later, may have a _______________?
Stronger emotional response than if it was dealt with it in other ways (e.g. cognitive reappraisal)
Cognitive reappraisal (cognition-focused strategy) involves
Thinking about an event or stimulus in a way that changes your emotional response to it (e.g. imagining the spider as a weak, helpless thing, stuck in a terrarium)
Reappraising one’s heart beating rapidly and your hands trembling before a speech/interview as excitement instead of nervousness is characteristic of what cognition-focused strategy?
Cognitive reappraisal
Focusing on a plausible, but positive (or at least neutral) interpretation of the situation
Like distraction, reappraisal changes your interpretation of the situation but _____?
(cognition-focused strategies )
Does nothing to change the situation itself
Troy, Shallcross, & Mauss, (2013) examined the relationship between dispositional use of reappraisal on depression, with controllability of stressful events as a mediating factor
- Higher use of reappraisal predicted:
- Lower rates of depression among people who had
faced uncontrollable stressors
- Higher rates of depression among those whose
stressors had been controllable
What does this suggest?
People who habitually reappraise instead of addressing situation instead likely trade short-term emotional gain for longer term pain
Outline the 4 different types of cognitive reappraisal (cognition-focused strategies)
- At the simplest level, one can ignore the emotional aspects of a situation and focus on trivial things
- Making a joke about a situation can also improve your emotions but effectiveness depends on the kind of humor employed (positive humor significantly more effective
- Forgiveness of others as a kind of cognitive reappraisal, finding some acceptable explanation for another person’s hurtful behavior
- Positive reappraisal: focusing on positive aspects of negative or challenging situations (a.k.a benefit finding)
*Michelle Shiota and Robert Levenson’s (2012) illustrates how positive reappraisal differs from those of more neutral, or detached reappraisal. Describe their methods
Asked participants to watch the following:
- Television clips showing people eating disgusting things, such as cow intestine and horse rectum,
- Movie scenes in which the main character learns that a family member has died
Watch two versions of each type of film under the following conditions:
1. First without instruction to regulate their emotions
2. Second with instructions to use either detached or
positive reappraisal
*Michelle Shiota and Robert Levenson’s (2012) illustrates how positive reappraisal differs from those of more neutral, or detached reappraisal. Describe their results
Participants in both groups thought their assigned reappraisal strategy was effective in terms of regulating their emotions
Detached reappraisal had overall reduction in emotion relative to the no instruction condition
- Subjective emotional intensity decreased
- Valence did not improve
- Reduction in cardiovascular reactivity when using this
kind of reappraisal
Positive reappraisal
- No change in subjective emotional intensity
- An improvement in valence—they felt more positive.
- Tended to maintain a comparable level of
cardiovascular reactivity with and without emotion
regulation
*Michelle Shiota and Robert Levenson’s (2012) illustrates how positive reappraisal differs from those of more neutral, or detached reappraisal. What do their findings suggest?
Suggests that positive reappraisal keeps people more emotionally engaged with the situation at hand, but in a way that is less aversive
Just like active coping, positive reappraisal
Encourages behaviors that improve your life
Moskowitz and colleagues (2009) performing a meta-analysis of AIDS patients’ coping strategies found that those who used positive reappraisal reported better health behaviors, and showed better health outcomes
However, positive reappraisal does not ____ ____positive outcomes.
Invariably predict
A different meta-analysis of many studies, not limited to AIDS patients, found that high dispositional positive reappraisal was unrelated to physical health, and negatively associated with psychological health
- Seeing the opportunities in a stressful situation may
motivate action to take advantage of those
opportunities, and may sustain hope
- Thinking that things aren’t as bad as they seem may
also reduce a person’s motivation to improve the
situation
With respect to response-focused strategies, people escape emotions through ___, ___, and _____
Drugs, alcohol, and food
With respect to response-focused strategies, suppressing emotional expression is
Costly in terms of cognitive resources, and has a wide range of negative implications
Catharsis, the release of strong emotions by expressing them (response-focused strategy) does
Not reliably reduce the emotion, and often increases it.
- People who deal with their negative emotions by venting tend to have more anxiety than average in their interpersonal relationships
- When people are encouraged to cry during sad movies, they end up feeling worse, than people who tried to restrain their tears
- Distressed couples who vent their anger against each other are increasing the risk of divorce, not reconciliation
We have cautioned against dwelling on unpleasant experiences and emotions (catarsis), but also against all thoughts about them (ruminating), a happy medium between these two extremes would be
Relatively brief explorations of your problems (response-focused strategy)
Expressing your emotions can have positive benefits by eliciting
Social support from other people (response-focused strategy)
Bylsma (2008) collected reports from people in 35 countries asking: a) the most recent time when they cried, b) how crying affected their mood C) report features of the situation (e.g. who else was present, what event made them cry, and what happened afterward)
- Crying was most likely to improve feelings when it evoked social support from others, specifically in the form of comforting words, touch, or other friendly behaviors
This response-focused strategy has been shown to prevent depression, help alleviate depressive symptoms, and over the long term, help prevent anxiety
Exercise
Outline the four reasons for moderate exercise resulting in improved mood
- Acts as distraction from stress
- If the source of stress is completely out of your
control and reappraisal is not a reasonable strategy,
then distraction may be a good idea.
- If the source of stress is completely out of your
- Improves overall health
- People in good physical condition show less tension
and sympathetic arousal in response to stressful
events, compared to people in worse condition
- People in good physical condition show less tension
- Helps release energy from stress’ fight or flight response, to enter a relaxed state more quickly
- Endorphins released during exercise act as natural pain-killers, with opiate activity generally associated with improved mood
The easiest of all 3 major strategies to measure with fMRI is
Cognition-focused strategies
*Describe the methods of Beauregard, Lévesque, and Bourgouin’s (2001) study
- Had young men watched a series of short pornographic films under fMRI
- Either instructed to allow themselves to become aroused or inhibit their arousal.
*Describe the results of Beauregard, Lévesque, and Bourgouin’s (2001) study
- While the men were sexually aroused, activity increased in the hypothalamus, right amygdala, and part of the right temporal cortex—areas commonly activated during strong emotion
- While men were inhibiting their arousal, activity was lower in the amygdala and hypothalamus, but increased in the prefrontal cortex, an area identified with cognitive control
*Describe the implications of Beauregard, Lévesque, and Bourgouin’s (2001) study
Emphasized how cognition-focused strategies require executive control: considerable effortful control over thoughts and attention
*Describe the methods of Ochsner et al., (2002) study
Looked at a series of disturbing photos under fMRI either with or without instructions to reappraise imagine to be less disturbing
*Describe the results of Ochsner et al., (2002) study
- Without instructions, showed extensive activity in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal part of the prefrontal cortex (areas often active during emotional experience)
- When participants were reinterpreting the photos, those brain areas showed less response, but parts of the prefrontal cortex became more active
*Describe the methods of Goldin et al., (2008) study
Showed participants several distressing film clips under fMRI scan
- Either asked them to passively watch, reappraise clips, or suppress emotional expressions
*Describe the results of Goldin et al., (2008) study
- Both reappraisal and suppression resulted in increased prefrontal cortex activation compared with the just-watch condition
- However, reappraisal instruction elicited this
activation within a few seconds of the beginning of
the clip, whereas suppression instruction evoked
activation several seconds later
- However, reappraisal instruction elicited this
*Describe the implications of Goldin et al., (2008) study
Time difference is consistent with hypotheses of process model of emotion regulation suggesting that suppression takes place later in the emotion process than reappraisal
Describe the two ways in which social support helps us deal with stressful situations
- Instrumental social support: seeking and receiving practical support from other people
in a time of stress
- E.g. Your friends can give you advice about how to deal with the problem, support you through job loss by helping you find new one - Emotional social support: seeking and receiving compassion and encouragement from others when distressed
Situation-focused strategies, when successful, have major advantages:
If you can avoid or reduce the problem, there is less reason for unpleasant emotions in the first place
- Recently bereaved widows indicated that those who felt the most control over the events of their lives experienced the least anxiety
- Adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder were less likely than average to use situation-focused approaches to their stressful situation, and therefore more likely to end up in aggressive confrontations
If you have little control over a problem (cant use situation-focused strategies), your choices left are to ____________ or to try to __________
Reappraise the situation (cognitive-focused) or to try to regulate your emotional responses (suppression) (response-focused)
Reappraisal and suppression strategies also have different effects on
Memory
- Reappraisal strategy allows one to deflect the experience of negative emotion and attend to other aspects of the situation
- Suppressing emotion requires constant attention while monitoring one’s behavior to hide feelings
Richards and colleagues (2003) had participants viewing negative film clips, watching unpleasant slides, and discuss conflicts with a romantic partner. Those instructed to suppress their emotion displays consistently showed ___ memory for verbal information than those instructed to reappraise or those given no regulation instructions
Worse
Suppression has a more negative impact on _______ _______ compared to reappraisal
Social relationships
- People who report more frequent use of reappraisal strategies are better liked by their peers
- Among individuals who were making the transition from high school to college, those who reported more frequent emotional suppression had a harder time forming new relationships
The most obvious reason for suppressing negative emotion is to avoid conflict with other people in certain situations. But, at the dispositional level, it makes it difficult to
Get close to/intimate with someone
