Inducing Amusement in the Laboratory and Its Moderation by Experiential Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110079
Author(s):  
Danette Abernathy ◽  
Robert D. Zettle

The relative ability of four comedic sketches to induce amusement in the laboratory and its moderation by dispositional differences in experiential approach as a form of positive emotion regulation were investigated. College student participants reported significant and equivalent diminished levels of negative affect relative to baseline following each sketch, while the level of positive affect induced by The Office exceeded that elicited by two of the three other sketches as well as by a top-ranked French comedic film clip. Regression models indicated that the two subscales of the Experiential Approach Scale and their interaction accounted for significant variability in negative mood reductions following the sketches. Unexpectedly, college student participants who enjoyed the greatest decrement in negative affect reported a regulation style in which anxiously clinging to positive emotions dominates over sustaining and savoring them. The limitations of this project and implications of its findings for laboratory inductions of amusement, as well as further investigations of its possible moderation by experiential approach as form of positive emotion regulation are discussed.

Author(s):  
W. Michael Vanderlind ◽  
Jutta Joormann

Depression is a disorder of emotion dysregulation. Indeed, emotion regulation difficulties are clearly evident in the hallmark features of the disorder: sustained negative affect and anhedonia. Whereas an abundance of research has focused on the downregulation of negative affect, only recently has empirical work begun to untangle depression-related difficulties experiencing and maintaining positive emotions. This chapter first reviews the phenomenology of positive emotion disruptions within major depression and then identifies emerging findings that highlight potential mechanisms of these disruptions. Various forms of methodology (e.g., self-report, behavioral tasks, psychophysiology, neuroimaging) are integrated to address the following questions: Where does positive emotion fall apart in depression and why? The chapter concludes by discussing implications for the assessment of major depression as well as the refinement of interventions aimed at treating this debilitating disorder.


2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-212
Author(s):  
Vassia Karamanoli ◽  
Kyriaki Fousiani ◽  
Maria Sakalaki

The goal was to investigate the association of economic opportunism with self-efficacy, optimism, and positive emotion. It was hypothesized that economic opportunists should experience lower self-efficacy, less positive thinking, and less optimism. Study 1 ( N = 206) showed that economic opportunism was negatively correlated with self-efficacy, optimism, and positive affect, and positively correlated with negative affect. Study 2 ( N = 128) indicated that individuals reporting higher self-efficacy were less likely to defect on their counterparts in a game situation. These findings show the negative association of opportunistic propensity with self-efficacy and positive emotions. Implications for experimental research on economic opportunism and positive emotions are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Nicholas E. Roseth

The purpose of this study was to explore features of university environments that support well-being as perceived by undergraduate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) music and art students. Data were drawn from the 2013–2015 administrations of the College Student Report (CSR) by the National Survey of Student Engagement. Responses of students who identified as music majors, music or art education majors, or as LGBQ ( n = 30,014) were extracted. CSR items regarding the students’ collegiate experiences corresponding with dimensions of Seligman’s well-being theory (i.e., positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, achievement) were used to create composite variables for analysis. The data indicated similar ratings between heterosexual and LGBQ music/art students for positive emotion, engagement, and relationships. In contrast, non–music/art LGBQ students rated items pertaining to positive emotions and relationships lower than heterosexual music/art students and lower than both heterosexual students and LGBQ music/art students in engagement. Both LGBQ groups rated meaning items significantly higher than heterosexual music/art students. The data also indicated that heterosexual music/art students rated achievement items significantly higher than both LGBQ groups. These findings suggest that heterosexual and LGBQ music/art students may perceive better support for their well-being by their institutions’ environments than their non–music/art LGBQ peers.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiyong Xiong ◽  
Xinyu Weng ◽  
Yu Wei

To guide the design direction of emotion regulation products that improve the positive emotions of users, investigation into the correlation between relevant visual factors and multi-dimensional complex emotions is needed. In the present study, an extended product emotion measurement method was adopted to describe the multi-dimensional emotional set of each influencing factor and calculate their weight according to the order. The positive and negative emotion indicators of all influencing factors were compared and the evaluation and ranking factors that affect users’ emotional value of emotion regulation products were analyzed. The experimental results reveal that specific emotion mapping scenes on positive emotion are the most significant among the key factors affecting user emotion. Further, the influence of emotional stickers, interactive data visualization, and text on positive emotions decreased in turn. The influence of emotional text on positive emotion was the lowest. Through investigating the visual factors that affect the psychological emotions of users, the development of emotion regulating products could be guided in a more scientific and reasonable manner.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiting Ng ◽  
Ed Diener

In Study 1, individuals high in neuroticism (high N) felt more negative and experienced less decrease of their negative emotions than individuals low in Neuroticism (low N) when extremely unpleasant hypothetical scenarios improved. Study 2 also found that high N individuals felt more negative than low N in a slightly unpleasant laboratory situation, and that individuals high in Extraversion (high E) felt more positive than individuals low in Extraversion (low E) in a slightly pleasant laboratory situation. The present studies also confirmed that high N individuals were less likely to repair negative emotions than low N, and high E individuals were more likely to savor positive emotions than low E. These attempts at negative and positive emotion regulation predicted negative and positive emotional reactions, respectively, and accounted for the trait differences in emotions. Hence, there is evidence that differences in negative emotion regulation mediated the relation between Neuroticism and negative emotions, and differences in positive emotion regulation mediated the relation between Extraversion and positive emotions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-179
Author(s):  
Ciara James ◽  
Jennifer E. Drake ◽  
Ellen Winner

While the benefit of distraction over expression as an emotion regulation strategy has been shown, it is not clear whether this benefit generalizes across a range of activities. To find out, we compared distraction versus expression in drawing, writing, talking, and thinking to oneself. We induced a negative mood in 160 participants by asking them to visualize an upsetting experience. Participants were randomly assigned to an emotion regulation strategy (express or distract) and an activity (draw, write, talk, or think). Positive and negative affect was measured before and after the mood induction and after the activity. Distraction boosted positive affect more than did expression for the draw and think activities, but distraction lowered negative affect more than did expression for all four activities. We conclude that distraction is a more effective emotion regulation strategy than expression in improving mood especially for activities that involve drawing and thinking.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251561
Author(s):  
Desirée Colombo ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Pavani ◽  
Javier Fernandez-Alvarez ◽  
Azucena Garcia-Palacios ◽  
Cristina Botella

A growing body of research has investigated the regulation of negative emotions in ecological settings, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying positive emotion regulation in everyday life. Although some evidence suggests that adopting positive strategies is beneficial for emotional well-being, the literature is inconsistent about the effects of positive emotions on subsequent regulatory processes. In the present study, we adopted a two-week ecological momentary assessment to explore the association between positive emotions and positive emotion regulation in daily life. According to our results, the less individuals felt positive emotions at one point, the more they tended to enhance their use of positive strategies from this time to the next, which in turn resulted in subsequent higher levels of positive emotions. This prototype of positive regulation can be seen as a highly adaptive mechanism that makes it possible to compensate for a lack of positive emotions by enhancing the deployment of positive strategies. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Mettler ◽  
Melissa Stern ◽  
Stephen P. Lewis ◽  
Nancy L. Heath

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has consistently been associated with self-reported difficulties in emotion reactivity and the regulation of negative emotions; however, less is known about the accuracy of these self-reports or the reactivity and regulation of positive emotions. The present study sought to investigate differences between women with and without a history of NSSI on: (a) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion reactivity, (b) self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion regulation, and (c) emotion regulation reported in response to a positive and negative mood induction. The sample consisted of 36 women with a recent history of NSSI within the last 2 years (Mage = 20.06; SD = 1.51) and a comparison group with no history of NSSI (n = 34; Mage = 20.15; SD = 1.54). Participants completed self-report measures of negative and positive emotion reactivity and regulation. In a separate session, participants underwent both a negative and positive mood induction using a counterbalanced design and reported their experienced emotions. Results from two-way MANOVAs and ANOVAs revealed those with a history of NSSI reported significantly greater difficulties in negative emotion reactivity and regulation than the no-NSSI comparison group; however, no group differences emerged in self-reported reactivity or regulation of positive emotions. In contrast, repeated measures ANOVAs on data from the mood induction task found no group differences in reactivity or regulation for either negative or positive emotions. These findings highlight the possibility that although individuals with a history of NSSI evaluate their ability to manage negative emotions as significantly worse than individuals with no history of self-injury, this may not reflect their actual emotion regulatory processes.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0245545
Author(s):  
Alice Chirico ◽  
Michelle N. Shiota ◽  
Andrea Gaggioli

The goal of this large-scale study was to test the relationship between positive emotion dispositions (i.e., Joy, Contentment, Pride, Love, Compassion, Amusement, and Awe) and two strategies of emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the Italian population. 532 Italian-speaking adults completed the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scales (DPES), the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (PANAS), the Italian Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Big-Five Inventory (BFI). DPES scales showed high reliability. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that a 6-factor model fits the Italian sample better. Joy and Contentment loaded on the same factor. Items assessing the other five emotions loaded on separate factors. The patterns of relationships between positive emotion dispositions, positive and negative affects traits (PANAS), and personality traits (BFI) indicated concurrent validity of the DPES. Twelve separated multiple regression models with BFI and ERQ factors as predictors and DPES factors as response variables showed that Extraversion significantly positively predicted of all DPES emotions. Agreeableness predicted Happiness, Love, Compassion, and Awe positively. Conscientiousness predicted Amusement and Love negatively and Compassion, Pride, and Happiness positively. Neuroticism predicted all emotions negatively except for Compassion. Positive emotions were significantly and positively predicted by reappraisal, and negatively predicted by suppression.


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