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PS937 Emotion Regulation - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Processes of memory (thus thinking & learning)
      - Cognitivism (1950s): all processes of human information processing
      - Neuro-anatomically: processes involving the cortex
      - In everyday life
        
        somehow linked to human intelligence
        
        emotions as opponent to cognition
    - - Duration
      - Course
      - Intensity
      - Cause
      - Function
      - Direction
      - META-MOOD
        
        thoughts and feelings about moods
        
        important aspect of emotional intelligence (Mayer & Salovey, 1993)
        
        Dimensions (Mayer & Gaschke, 1988)
        
        Clarity
        
        This refers to the ability to identify and understand one’s emotions clearly.
        
        E.g. Someone with high clarity would accurately identify feeling frustrated after a failed task, whereas someone with low clarity might only feel "bad" without pinpointing the exact emotion.
        
        Acceptance
        
        This involves the ability to accept one's emotional experiences without judgment.
        
        E.g. A person who experiences sadness might think, "It's okay to feel sad sometimes," showing acceptance, instead of trying to suppress or deny the emotion.
        
        Controllability
        
        This is the perceived ability to influence or regulate one’s emotional states.
        
        E.g. If someone feels anxious, high controllability might lead them to use deep breathing or distraction techniques to reduce anxiety, believing they can calm themselves down.
        
        Predicted changes
        
        This is the expectation of how one's mood might change over time, including the belief that emotions are dynamic and will not last forever.
        
        E.g. After feeling upset about an argument, a person with a good understanding of predicted changes might think, "I’ll probably feel better tomorrow once I’ve had time to process this."
    - - Plato (375BC)
        
        Emotions are inferior to reason
      - Howard (1928)
        
        Emotions as physiological dysfunction
      - critique
        
        "happiness" as ? conflict
        
        Emotions have an adaptive function
    - - Higher in the phylogenetic rank order of species, the higher
        
        number of trigger stimuli for emotions
        
        variations in the emotional behaviour
        
        distinctions in facial muscles
- - - - Primary (situation)
        
        situation relevant to goals, needs or well-being?
      - Secondary (coping)
        
        ability to manage the situation (e.g. resources)
      - Reappraisal
        
        Re-evaluation of situation based on new information or change in perspective
        
        e.g. after speaking with a supportive friend, one might feel less anxious about a problem
  - - - emotions (affect) are more fundamental than thoughts (cognition)
      - can operate independently of cognition
    - - Participants developed preferences for stimuli they were exposed to repeatedly, even when they were unaware of these exposures
      - Liking could arise without cognitive evaluation
  - - - Emotions and cognitions are interconnected
        
        situation dependent - Depending on the situation, either emotions or cognitive processes can take precedence
        
        Emotions and cognition are not strictly hierarchical but interact dynamically
      - Primacy depends on context
        
        In some cases, emotions may arise automatically and independently of conscious thought (as Zajonc argued)
        
        e.g. fear response triggered by a sudden noise
        
        In other cases, cognition might precede and shape emotional experiences (as Lazarus argued)
        
        evaluating a situation as a threat before feeling anxiety. - e.g. exam / job interview
      - neurophysiological evidence
        
        The brain processes emotions and cognition through distinct but interconnected pathways (e.g., the fast, unconscious amygdala pathway for emotions and the slower, deliberate cortical pathway for cognition).
        
        These pathways suggest that emotion and cognition are not rigidly sequential but interact based on environmental demands and individual factors.
      - "Neither Hypothesis Holds at All Times"
        
        Flexibility in Emotional Responses to different scenarios
        
        Integrated - neither theory is universally correct or universally wrong
        
        context-appropriate strategies to address both emotional and cognitive aspects for interventions in mental health, education, and decision-making
- - - - Perceptual Defence
        
        selective perceiving such that the individual protects himself from becoming aware of something unpleasant or threatening (e.g. obscene words are not heard correctly or violent acts are not seen accurately)
        
        emotional or affective significance of a word is processed by the brain without the individual being fully aware of the word itself.
        
        suggesting that emotionally charged words can bypass conscious recognition while still influencing the individual at a subconscious or affective level
        
        detection threshold
        
        words charged with emotional content TAKE LONGER to be recognized than neutral words
        
        Hardy & Legge (1968)
        
        Two words presented simultaneously - one through headphones
        
        subliminal presentation of an emotional word inhibits perceptual processing
        
        emotionally charged words (e.g., "death," "cancer") were shown to participants very quickly, and they were asked to identify the word
        
        Participants were slower to identify emotional words compared to neutral ones, indicating that emotionally charged content was processed differently—more slowly and with some "defense."
        
        Despite the delay in recognition, the emotional content still affected the participants’ subsequent behavior, such as emotional reactions or physiological responses (e.g., heart rate or stress levels).
        
        Emotional Stroop Task
        
        In the emotional Stroop task, participants are asked to name the color of emotionally charged words, like "failure" or "hate."
        
        People tend to take LONGER to name the color of emotionally charged words than neutral words, even though they are not required to recognize the word itself. This suggests that the emotional content interferes with the cognitive task of naming the color.
        
        The emotional content bypasses immediate conscious recognition but still affects how quickly or efficiently the individual can perform the task.
        
        Subliminal Priming Studies
        
        In some experiments, participants are exposed to emotional words flashed too quickly for conscious recognition. Even though participants cannot report seeing the words, their emotional responses (e.g., facial expressions, physiological changes) indicate that the affective content has been processed.
        
        James Vicary (1950s) - fabrication to generate publicity (replication failure) - flashed subliminal messages like "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" on screen for 1/3000 of a second - sales increased
        
        Implications
        
        Defense Mechanisms
        
        Perceptual defense can be seen as a protective mechanism that helps individuals avoid conscious awareness of emotional threats. It prevents individuals from being overwhelmed by distressing content, which could potentially interfere with everyday functioning.
        
        Emotional Regulation
        
        The concept ties into emotion regulation, where the mind tries to manage emotional overload by unconsciously avoiding emotionally intense stimuli until it is ready to process them more fully.
        
        Cognitive Behavioural Models
        
        Perceptual defense aligns with cognitive-behavioral models that highlight the influence of emotions on cognition—even when individuals are unaware of the emotional stimuli.
      - Freud's Repression (1915)
        
        Keep something away from the consciousness (denial of emotions)
        
        From the psychoanalytic school of psychology
        
        elementary defence mechanism of ego
        
        difficult to prove in experiments
        
        unconscious and automatic
        
        shields the conscious mind but can create internal tension because the repressed material often persists and influences behavior indirectly (e.g., through dreams, slips of the tongue, or neurotic symptoms)
        
        provide short-term relief from emotional distress
        
        can lead to long-term psychological issues (e.g., anxiety disorders, depression)
    - - Management of situations that exceed a person's resources
        
        Learned Helplessness (Seligman, 1972)
        
        3 groups of dogs
        
        nothing happened
        
        learn to escape
        
        stop shock by pressing lever
        
        learn to escape
        
        receive shock at random
        
        simply lay down
      - Reappraisal
        
        subjective / physiological response
        
        cognitive reframing
        
        individuals actively reinterpret its meaning
        
        Instead of passively reacting to a situation
        
        Ochsner et al. (2002)
        
        Objective: To investigate the brain regions involved in cognitive reappraisal and understand how this process affects emotional regulation.
        
        Participants were shown emotionally charged images (e.g., a woman crying outside a church).
        
        Default interpretation: Participants reacted to the images naturally (e.g., assuming the woman was crying in grief at a funeral).
        
        Reappraisal condition: Participants were instructed to reinterpret the image positively (e.g., viewing the woman as crying tears of joy at a wedding).
        
        amygdala, associated with emotional responses like fear and distress, showed decreased activity during reappraisal.
        
        activated the left lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), particularly areas involved in cognitive control and decision-making
        
        PFC plays a critical role in modulating emotional responses through cognitive reinterpretation
        
        As PFC activity increased, amygdala activity decreased, showing a top-down regulation mechanism (negative correlation).
    - - rooted in study of socioemotional development
        
        Walter Mischel (1960s) - Marshmallow Studies - Delayed Gratification
      - Emotion Regulation
        
        initiation of new emotions
        
        alteration of ongoing emotions
      - Regulatory Strategies
        
        Behavioural Regulation
        
        suppressing expressive behaviour
        
        Attentional Control (Ochsner & Gross, 2005)
        
        Selective Attention
        
        Selective inattention to emotional stimuli
        
        amydala activation decreases when attending to emotional or perceptual features, some others found amygdala activation invariant
        
        Attentional Distraction
        
        Performing distracting secondary tasks
        
        'think of something else' diminishes how averse pain is
        
        reduced activity in cortical and subcortical pain regions
        
        activates OFC, ACC and medial & lateral PFC (related to cognitive control)
        
        Attention to and judgment of emotional vs non-emotional stimulus attributes
        
        Attention = Selection
        
        Cognitive Change (Ochsner & Gross, 2005)
        
        attending to or interpreting emotion-eliciting situations
        
        Behavioural & neural responses can change as a result
        
        Ways
        
        Controlled Generation
        
        Anticipating painful shock activates
        
        cingulate
        
        insula
        
        amygdala
        
        Controlled Regulation
        
        Reappraisal activates ...
        
        dorsal ACC / PFC systems
        
        Placebo response
      - Brain
        
        Interactions between
        
        Prefrontal & Cingulate Regions
        
        Amygdala & Insula
  - - - Awareness & understanding of emotions
      - Acceptance of Emotions
      - Action (when experiencing negative emotions)
        
        Ability to engage in goal-directed behaviour
        
        Refrain from impulsive behaviour
      - Access to emotion regulation strategies are perceived as effective
    - - Non acceptance
        
        feel guilty, ashamed, embarrassed, angry, irritated, weak
      - Goals
        
        Difficulties engaging in goal-directed behaviours
        
        concentrating
        
        focusing on other things
        
        getting work done
        
        thinking about anything else
      - Impulse control difficulties
        
        lose control over my behaviours
        
        difficulty controlling my behaviours
        
        become out of control
        
        feel out of control
        
        experience as overwhelming
      - Awareness
        
        lack of emotional awareness
        
        attentive
        
        acknowledge
        
        valid and important
        
        care about
      - Strategies limited access to emotion regulation
        
        i'll end up feeling very depressed
        
        I'll remain that way for a long time
        
        wallowing in it is all I can done
        
        takes me a long time to feel better
      - Clarity (emotion) - lack of
        
        how individual knows and are clear about what they are feeling or not
        
        I have difficulty making sense of my feelings
        
        I have no idea how I am feeling
        
        I am confused about how I feel