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旁观者清还是患难与共?调节者处境对人际情绪调节的影响*
Bystander or Co-Sufferer? The Impact of the Regulator's Situation on Interpersonal Emotion Regulation
鉴于人际情绪调节对维持和改善个体心理健康的重要作用，人际情绪调节的影响因素一直是研究者们关注的重点，然而以往研究较少关注情境因素对人际情绪调节效果的影响。为考察这一问题，本研究通过操纵电刺激的呈现方式为调节者构建旁观（不受电刺激）和共患难（与被调节者共同接受电刺激）两种处境，以考察调节者处境对人际情绪调节的影响。结果表明，与共患难处境相比，当调节者处于旁观者处境时，调节者对被调节者的共情准确度和调节意愿更高，人际情绪调节效果更好；同时调节他人后的自我情绪体验也更为积极。本研究结果告诉我们，在日常生活中作为调节者去帮助他人时，需要尽量充当旁观者而不是共患难者，以提高人际情绪调节的效果。
An increasing number of studies have suggested that interpersonal emotion regulation plays a key role in maintaining and improving mental health, strengthening emotional connections between individuals, and promoting the development of healthy interpersonal relationships. Therefore, it is of great importance to enhance the effectiveness of interpersonal emotion regulation. However, previous research has given limited attention to how contextual factors influence its effectiveness. Notably, past studies have typically manipulated the context and emotional events through participants' imagination, meaning the regulator often participates in the emotion regulation process as a "bystander." For example, the regulator was made aware of the target’s negative emotions through the presentation of images, text, or by asking the participant to recall specific events. Although the regulator in this "bystander" scenario receives emotional information from the target, the absence of direct experience may result in a less accurate understanding of the other person's emotions. In contrast, when the regulator and the target experience negative emotions together—that is, when they "co-suffer"—the regulator can access the most direct and accurate emotional information from the target. This can potentially enhance the effectiveness of emotion regulation.
To investigate this issue, the present study used an innovative, high ecological validity interpersonal emotion regulation task to examine the impact of the regulator's situation on interpersonal emotion regulation. A 2 (electrical stimulation probability: low probability - safe/high probability - dangerous) × 2 (regulator’s situation: bystander/co-sufferer) within-subjects design was used. Negative emotions (anxiety, panic) were induced through real electrical stimulation, and the presentation method of the stimulation was manipulated to create two conditions for the regulator: "bystander" (not receiving stimulation) and "co-sufferer" (receiving the stimulation along with the target).To explore the impact of contextual factors on interpersonal emotion regulation with greater ecological validity, we manipulated the probability of electrical stimulation to simulate relatively safe and dangerous situations, with the safe condition set as the baseline. Participants were paired for the experiment. Before the formal experiment began, both participants first assessed their pain thresholds for the electrical stimulation, then learned the definitions and practiced two emotion regulation strategies: distraction and reappraisal. Next, participants drew lots to determine their roles, with one acting as the regulator and the other as the target. Roles remained fixed throughout the experiment. The task was divided into two blocks, corresponding to the "bystander" and "co-sufferer" conditions. In both conditions, the regulator's task was to reduce the negative emotions of the target caused by the anticipation of the impending electrical stimulation.
Our results showed that the co-sufferer condition did not improve the regulation effect as expected. In contrast, when the regulator acted as a bystander, their empathy accuracy was higher, and the interpersonal emotion regulation effect was better.
This study is the first to examine the impact of the regulator’s situation on interpersonal emotion regulation, offering a new theoretical perspective to enrich its process model. While the goal of interpersonal emotion regulation is to improve the emotional state of the target, the regulator's own emotional state is also continuously influenced throughout the process, impacting the implementation and effectiveness of regulation. This study suggests that the process model of interpersonal emotion regulation should include modules for the regulator to manage their own emotions. To improve the effectiveness of interpersonal emotion regulation and benefit both parties, it is crucial to enhance our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the regulator's role. Additionally, from both the regulator's and the target 's perspectives, efforts should be made to ensure that the regulator's emotional regulation of both the other person and themselves mutually reinforce each other during the process. Based on the findings of this study, we recommend that, when providing emotional regulation assistance, the regulator should carefully assess their own situational characteristics, embodying the principle, "Maintain your kindness in poverty, lend a helping hand in prosperity."
人际情绪调节 / 旁观 / 共患难 / 共情准确度 / 调节者处境
interpersonal emotion regulation / bystander / co-sufferer / empathy accuracy / regulator’s situation
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高可翔, 张岳瑶, 李思瑾, 袁加锦, 李红, 张丹丹. (2023). 腹内侧前额叶在内隐认知重评中的因果作用. 心理学报, 55(2), 210-223.
情绪调节对维持个体心理健康、适应社会生活十分重要, 然而以往研究主要关注外显情绪调节, 目前我们对内隐情绪调节的认知神经机制的了解还非常有限。为揭示内隐情绪调节的核心脑区, 本研究使用句子整理任务启动内隐认知重评, 并采用经颅直流电刺激(transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS)激活内侧前额叶特别是腹内侧前额叶(ventromedial prefrontal cortex, vmPFC), 考察该脑区在内隐情绪调节中的因果作用。结果表明, vmPFC被激活的被试组(实验组, n = 40)在内隐认知重评启动条件下比tDCS伪刺激组(对照组, n = 40), 在观看负性图片时报告了更少的负性情绪, 同时负性图片诱发的晚正成分(late positive potential, LPP)波幅更低(LPP是情绪体验强度的客观指标)。同时, 实验组比对照组在观看负性图片时表现出更低的枕区P1波幅(P1为早期视觉注意程度的客观指标)。以上结果说明, 激活以vmPFC为代表的内侧前额叶不但能增强内隐情绪调节的效果, 还能减少被试对负性刺激的早期注意分配。本研究是采用tDCS技术考察启动引起的内隐情绪调节的首次尝试, 研究结果不但表明了以vmPFC为代表的内侧前额叶在内隐认知重评中的关键作用, 还为临床应用研究指出了增强内隐情绪调节能力的神经调控潜在靶点。
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张琼之, 冉光明, 张琪, 刘俊材. 大学生负性生活事件对主观幸福感的影响: 一个有调节的中介模型. 贵州师范大学学报(自然科学版), 2024, 42(6), 97-103.
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张晓州, 彭婷, 罗杰, 邹昌浪. 高职大学新生认知重评策略与生命意义感的关系: 基于潜在剖面分析. 贵州师范大学学报(自然科学版), 2024, 42(6), 104-109.
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Even though painful experiences are employed within social rituals across the world, little is known about the social effects of pain. We examined the possibility that painful experiences can promote cooperation within social groups. In Experiments 1 and 2, we induced pain by asking some participants to insert their hands in ice water and to perform leg squats. In Experiment 3, we induced pain by asking some participants to eat a hot chili pepper. Participants performed these tasks in small groups. We found evidence for a causal link: Sharing painful experiences with other people, compared with a no-pain control treatment, promoted trusting interpersonal relationships by increasing perceived bonding among strangers (Experiment 1) and increased cooperation in an economic game (Experiments 2 and 3). Our findings shed light on the social effects of pain, demonstrating that shared pain may be an important trigger for group formation. © The Author(s) 2014.
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Empathy--the ability to share the feelings of others--is fundamental to our emotional and social lives. Previous human imaging studies focusing on empathy for others' pain have consistently shown activations in regions also involved in the direct pain experience, particularly anterior insula and anterior and midcingulate cortex. These findings suggest that empathy is, in part, based on shared representations for firsthand and vicarious experiences of affective states. Empathic responses are not static but can be modulated by person characteristics, such as degree of alexithymia. It has also been shown that contextual appraisal, including perceived fairness or group membership of others, may modulate empathic neuronal activations. Empathy often involves coactivations in further networks associated with social cognition, depending on the specific situation and information available in the environment. Empathy-related insular and cingulate activity may reflect domain-general computations representing and predicting feeling states in self and others, likely guiding adaptive homeostatic responses and goal-directed behavior in dynamic social contexts.
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Fear conditioning research on threat predictability has primarily examined the impact of temporal (i.e., timing) predictability on the startle reflex. However, there are other key features of threat that can vary in predictability. For example, the reinforcement rate (i.e., frequency) of threat is a crucial factor underlying fear learning. The present study examined the impact of threat reinforcement rate on the startle reflex and self-reported anxiety during a fear conditioning paradigm. Forty-five participants completed a fear learning task in which the conditioned stimulus was reinforced with an electric shock to the forearm on 50% of trials in one block and 75% of trials in a second block, in counter-balanced order. The present study also examined whether intolerance of uncertainty (IU), the tendency to perceive or experience uncertainty as stressful or unpleasant, was associated with the startle reflex during conditions of low (50%) vs. high (75%) reinforcement. Results indicated that, across all participants, startle was greater during the 75% relative to the 50% reinforcement condition. IU was positively correlated with startle potentiation (i.e., increased startle response to the CS+ relative to the CS-) during the 50%, but not the 75%, reinforcement condition. Thus, despite receiving fewer electric shocks during the 50% reinforcement condition, individuals with high IU uniquely demonstrated greater defense system activation when impending threat was more uncertain. The association between IU and startle was independent of state anxiety. The present study adds to a growing literature on threat predictability and aversive responding, and suggests IU is associated with abnormal responding in the context of uncertain threat. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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No recent meta-analysis has examined the effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for adult depression. We decided to conduct such an updated meta-analysis.Studies were identified through systematic searches in bibliographical databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and the Cochrane library). We included studies examining the effects of CBT, compared with control groups, other psychotherapies, and pharmacotherapy.A total of 115 studies met inclusion criteria. The mean effect size (ES) of 94 comparisons from 75 studies of CBT and control groups was Hedges g = 0.71 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.79), which corresponds with a number needed to treat of 2.6. However, this may be an overestimation of the true ES as we found strong indications for publication bias (ES after adjustment for bias was g = 0.53), and because the ES of higher-quality studies was significantly lower (g = 0.53) than for lower-quality studies (g = 0.90). The difference between high- and low-quality studies remained significant after adjustment for other study characteristics in a multivariate meta-regression analysis. We did not find any indication that CBT was more or less effective than other psychotherapies or pharmacotherapy. Combined treatment was significantly more effective than pharmacotherapy alone (g = 0.49).There is no doubt that CBT is an effective treatment for adult depression, although the effects may have been overestimated until now. CBT is also the most studied psychotherapy for depression, and thus has the greatest weight of evidence. However, other treatments approach its overall efficacy.
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Although it is frequently argued that empathy is increased by similar experiences, this idea has rarely been tested. This study investigated the relationship between empathy and prior similar experience. Participants read four different stories and rated the degree of empathy they felt. They also reported the extent to which they had prior similar experience of the events in the stories. We found that these self-reports of prior similar experience increased empathy for the persons in the stories. Similar experience may be an important situational antecedent for feeling empathy for another person. Pointing out similarities among experiences may be a fruitful means of training empathy.
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Recent studies have begun to document the diversity of ways people regulate their emotions. However, one unanswered question is why people regulate their emotions as they do in everyday life. In the present research, we examined how social context and goals influence strategy selection in daily high points and low points. As expected, suppression was particularly tied to social features of context: it was used more when others were present, especially non-close partners, and when people had instrumental goals, especially more interpersonal ones (e.g., avoid conflict). Distraction and reappraisal were used more when regulating for hedonic reasons (e.g., to feel better), but these strategies were also linked to certain instrumental goals (e.g., getting work done). When contra-hedonic regulation occurred, it primarily took the form of dampening positive emotion during high points. Suppression was more likely to be used for contra-hedonic regulation, whereas reappraisal and distraction were used more for pro-hedonic regulation. Overall, these findings highlight the social nature of emotion regulation and underscore the importance of examining regulation in both positive and negative contexts.
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Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide that negatively impacts quality of life. Talk therapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for depression. The Internet is an important tool for mental healthcare delivery. Internet-delivered or online talk therapy interventions are associated with lower costs and improved accessibility. Current reviews do not address the effectiveness of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) on quality of life (QoL).Interventions for iCBT have better QoL improvements for individuals with greater depressive symptom severity, females, young adults and individuals with complex comorbid disorders. Support from a healthcare provider for iCBT interventions have better outcomes than self-guided therapy interventions. Tailoring the iCBT intervention to the specialized needs of the population is beneficial.There is potential to address treatment gaps for managing the care of individuals with depression. Utilizing iCBT promotes the integration of accessible mental healthcare in clinical settings. Healthcare providers can have a more comprehensive approach to delivering iCBT by considering adaptations relevant to the clinical population being treated.INTRODUCTION: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability resulting from social, psychological and biological factors affecting quality of life (QoL). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective psychotherapy for MDD. Internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) is associated with lower costs and improved accessibility.We aimed to examine the effectiveness of iCBT on QoL in adults with depression.PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO were searched between 2010 and 2022. Inclusion criteria were experimental designs, adults ≥18 years old, depression diagnosis or valid self-report measure, iCBT intervention; and QoL outcome. Exclusion criteria were studies without depression analysis and intellectual disabilities or psychosis.Seventeen articles were included, with a negative correlation between depression severity and QoL. Sex, age and physical comorbidity positively influenced effectiveness. Depressive severity, dysfunctional attitude and negative thinking were predictors and moderators of QoL. Clinician support can impact social interactions and sense of belonging.Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy is effective for improving QoL in adults with MDD. Severe depression, females, younger age and comorbid disorders were associated with greater QoL improvements.The findings suggest iCBT could address depression treatment gaps related to improving QoL. Utilizing iCBT potentially improves the care continuum for individuals with complex disorders.© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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Social cognition is a topic of enormous interest and much research, but we are far from having an agreed taxonomy or factor structure of relevant processes. The aim of this review is to outline briefly what is known about the structure of social cognition and to suggest how further progress can be made to delineate the in(ter)dependence of core sociocognitive processes. We focus in particular on several processes that have been discussed and tested together in typical and atypical (notably autism spectrum disorder) groups: imitation, biological motion, empathy, and theory of mind. We consider the domain specificity/generality of core processes in social learning, reward, and attention, and we highlight the potential relevance of dual-process theories that distinguish systems for fast/automatic and slow/effortful processing. We conclude with methodological and conceptual suggestions for future progress in uncovering the structure of social cognition.
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Growing evidence has indicated that right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) is critical in down-regulating emotional responses to social exclusion, and that depression is accompanied by social emotional dysregulation associated with reduced lateral prefrontal engagement. This study used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine whether stimulating RVLPFC could improve emotional down-regulation of social exclusion in individuals with high depressive mood (DM).
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Does contextual affective information influence the processing of facial expressions already at the relatively early stages of face processing? We measured event-related brain potentials to happy and sad facial expressions primed by preceding pictures with affectively positive and negative scenes. The face-sensitive N170 response amplitudes showed a clear affective priming effect: N170 amplitudes to happy faces were larger when presented after positive vs. negative primes, whereas the N170 amplitudes to sad faces were larger when presented after negative vs. positive primes. Priming effects were also observed on later brain responses. The results support an early integration in processing of contextual and facial affective information. The results also provide neurophysiological support for theories suggesting that behavioral affective priming effects are based, at least in part, on facilitation of encoding of incoming affective information.Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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Despite the popularity of emotion regulation in the contemporary literature, research has almost exclusively focused on only processes, whereas much less attention has been placed in emotion regulation processes. In order to encourage research on interpersonal emotion regulation, we present a series of 4 studies to develop the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ). The final scale consists of 20 items with 4 factors containing 5 items each. The 4 factors are: ; and. The scale shows excellent psychometric characteristics. Implications for future research are discussed.
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Improving others' emotions is cognitively and emotionally demanding, potentially increasing stress levels and decreasing well-being. However, the opposite could also occur: Attempts at improving others' emotions-that is, extrinsic interpersonal emotion regulation-could enhance regulators' affective well-being and shield against physiological stress because we theorize that engaging in regulatory action to improve others' emotions can strengthen relationships, activate self-regulation, and elicit prosocial reward. In two studies, we test the consequences on regulators when they help others regulate their emotions. In Study 1, a 7-day diary study ( = 205, 1,434 observations) of significant social interactions, regulators who reported they improved the emotions of others to a greater extent experienced more emotions, both positive and negative, during their interactions. They also experienced an increase in positive affect from pre- to post-diary, no change in negative affect, and better affective well-being at the end of the study. In Study 2, a within-subject observational laboratory study ( = 94, 47 dyads, 235 observations), we found that during the minutes when regulators displayed greater behaviorally coded attempts at improving targets' emotions, regulators also experienced a corresponding buffering of increased physiological stress measured by pre-ejection period reactivity. These findings empirically support the role of in affective well-being over time and the protection against physiological stress when encountering others' negative emotions. This work also contributes a theoretical framework for understanding why regulating others' emotions is important for well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
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Although humans have developed abundant strategies to down regulate their own negative emotions, at times of distress they frequently turn to significant others to seek comfort. In the present study we use a novel performance-based paradigm to evaluate the effectiveness of this interaction.Forty-seven couples in a long-term relationship volunteered to participate in the study. In each couple the two partners were randomly assigned as either target or regulator. The target viewed pictures with negative valance. In response to each picture he/she was then instructed to choose and apply a regulatory strategy (i.e., intrapersonal emotion regulation) or to apply a regulatory strategy chosen by his/her partner, the regulator (i.e., interpersonal emotion regulation).We found that the outside perspective of the regulator helped reducing distress more effectively than intrapersonal emotion regulation. Moreover, the cognitive, but not the emotional, empathy of the regulator predicted the added value of interpersonal emotion regulation. Specifically, regulators with a better ability to understand their partners' point of view, selected regulatory strategies that reduced levels of distress more effectively.While the present study examined possible effects of depression, anxiety and the ability to identify and describe feelings, a larger sample is needed in order to optimally address their potential moderating effect.The results illuminate the value of non-professional interventions and the importance of cognitive empathy in reducing distress. The study has significant clinical implications, providing a simple behavioral tool that can be used to decrease and prevent psychopathology.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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The ventrolateral prefrontal cortices (VLPFC) are crucial regions involved in voluntary emotion regulation. However, the lateralization of the VLPFC in downregulating negative emotions remains unclear; and whether the causal role of the VLPFC is generalizable to upregulating positive emotions is unexplored. This study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the causal relationship between the left/right VLPFC and social emotion reappraisal. One hundred and twenty participants were randomly assigned to either active (left and right VLPFC groups, n = 40/40) or sham (vertex, n = 40) TMS groups. Participants were instructed to passively receive social feedback or use reappraisal strategies to positively regulate their emotions. While the subjective emotional rating showed that the bilateral VLPFC facilitated the reappraisal success, the electrophysiological measure of the late positive potential (LPP) demonstrated a more critical role of the right VLPFC on social pain relief (decreased LPP amplitudes) and social reward magnification (enhanced LPP amplitudes). In addition, the influence of emotion regulation on social evaluation was found to be mediated by the memory of social feedback, indicating the importance of memory in social behavioral shaping. These findings suggest clinical protocols for the rehabilitation of emotion-regulatory function in patients with affective and social disorders.© 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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Interpersonal emotion regulation is the dynamic process where the regulator aims to change the target's emotional state, which is presumed to engage three neural systems: cognitive control (i.e., dorsal and ventral lateral PFC, etc.), empathy/social cognition (i.e., dorsal premotor regions, temporal-parietal junction, etc.), and affective response (i.e., insula, amygdala, etc.). This study aimed to identify the underlying neural correlate (especially the interpersonal one), of interpersonal emotion regulation based on two typical strategies (cognitive appraisal, expressive suppression). Thirty-four female dyads (friends) were randomly assigned into two strategy groups, with one assigned as the target and the other as the regulator to downregulate the target's negative emotions using two strategies. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy system was used to simultaneously measure participants' neural activity. Results showed that these two strategies could successfully downregulate the targets' negative emotions. Both strategies evoked intrapersonal and interpersonal neural couplings between the cognitive control, social cognition, and mirror neuron systems (e.g., PFC, temporal-parietal junction, premotor cortex, etc.), whereas cognitive reappraisal (vs expressive suppression) evoked a broader pattern. Further, cognitive reappraisal involved increased interpersonal brain synchronization between the prefrontal and temporal areas at the sharing stage, whereas expressive suppression evoked increased interpersonal brain synchronization associated with the PFC at the regulation stage. These findings indicate that intrapersonal and interpersonal neural couplings associated with regions within the abovementioned systems, possibly involving mental processes, such as cognitive control, mentalizing, and observing, underlie interpersonal emotion regulation based on cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression.
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The present work examines whether emotion regulation (ER) strategies and goals vary as a function of the interaction partner (i.e., the target audience). Participants (N = 237; Mage = 21 years) indicated the extent to which the target (mother, father, friend, acquaintance, boss) would influence (a) the likelihood of their using, and their feelings about using, five ER strategies (suppression, reappraisal, distraction, substitution, expression) and (b) their endorsement of self- and other-oriented ER goals. An interaction between target and ER strategy suggested that participants felt better about expression and reappraisal with all targets, but would be more likely to express negative emotion with emotionally close targets and control emotion with nonclose targets. Self-oriented ER goals were more likely to be endorsed with authority figures.
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It is not clear whether relaxation therapies are more or less effective than cognitive and behavioural therapies in the treatment of anxiety. The aims of the present study were to examine the effects of relaxation techniques compared to cognitive and behavioural therapies in reducing anxiety symptoms, and whether they have comparable efficacy across disorders.We conducted a meta-analysis of 50 studies (2801 patients) comparing relaxation training with cognitive and behavioural treatments of anxiety.The overall effect size (ES) across all anxiety outcomes, with only one combined ES in each study, was g = -0.27 [95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.41 to -0.13], favouring cognitive and behavioural therapies (number needed to treat = 6.61). However, no significant difference between relaxation and cognitive and behavioural therapies was found for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias (considering social anxiety and specific phobias separately). Heterogeneity was moderate (I2 = 52; 95% CI = 33-65). The ES was significantly associated with age (p < 0.001), hours of cognitive and/or behavioural therapy (p = 0.015), quality of intervention (p = 0.007), relaxation treatment format (p < 0.001) and type of disorder (p = 0.008), explaining an 82% of variance.Relaxation seems to be less effective than cognitive and behavioural therapies in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and it might also be less effective at 1-year follow-up for panic, but there is no evidence that it is less effective for other anxiety disorders.
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Individuals use a range of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to influence the feelings of others, e.g., friends, family members, romantic partners, work colleagues. But little is known about whether people vary their strategy use across these different relational contexts. We characterize and measure this variability as "spin," i.e., the extent of dispersion in a person's interpersonal emotion regulation strategy use across different relationships, and focus on two key questions. First, is spin adaptive or maladaptive with regard to personal well-being and relationship quality? Second, do personality traits that are considered important for interpersonal functioning (i.e., empathy, attachment style) predict spin? The data used in this study is drawn from a large online survey. A key contribution of this study is to reveal that people who varied the type of strategies they used across relationships (i.e., those with high spin) had lower positive mood, higher emotional exhaustion, and less close relationships. A further key contribution is to show that spin was associated with low empathic concern and perspective taking and high anxious attachment style. High variability in interpersonal emotion regulation strategies across relationships therefore appears to be maladaptive both personally and socially.
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In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity of social pain (ostracism, shame, etc.)--a biased judgment that is only corrected when people actively experience social pain for themselves. Using a social exclusion manipulation, Studies 1-4 found that nonexcluded participants consistently underestimated the severity of social pain compared with excluded participants, who had a heightened appreciation for social pain. This empathy gap for social pain occurred when participants evaluated both the pain of others (interpersonal empathy gap) as well as the pain participants themselves experienced in the past (intrapersonal empathy gap). The authors argue that beliefs about social pain are important because they govern how people react to socially distressing events. In Study 5, middle school teachers were asked to evaluate policies regarding emotional bullying at school. This revealed that actively experiencing social pain heightened the estimated pain of emotional bullying, which in turn led teachers to recommend both more comprehensive treatment for bullied students and greater punishment for students who bully.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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Consensus that emotions are functional and adaptive has reached such a level that contradictory evidence is no longer seriously considered, and the complex determinants of functionality are not fully appreciated. To remedy this complacency, the author draws attention to the nontrivial amount of dysfunctional emotion in everyday life, as well as to the many long-standing philosophical and religious traditions that counsel dispassion. This exercise is useful for tempering functionalist zeal and restoring scientific skepticism. It also demonstrates that the functionality of emotions depends critically on the appraisals that give rise to emotions, the choice and control of the behaviors motivated by emotions, and the socialization and training of emotions. These parameters, whether or not they are considered part of an emotion, must be considered part of what makes emotions functional.
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Research in emotion regulation has largely focused on how people manage their own emotions, but there is a growing recognition that the ways in which we regulate the emotions of others also are important. Drawing on work from diverse disciplines, we propose an integrative model of the psychological and neural processes supporting the social regulation of emotion. This organizing framework, the 'social regulatory cycle', specifies at multiple levels of description the act of regulating another person's emotions as well as the experience of being a target of regulation. The cycle describes the processing stages that lead regulators to attempt to change the emotions of a target person, the impact of regulation on the processes that generate emotions in the target, and the underlying neural systems. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| [53] |
This research addresses a new construct, co-rumination. Co-rumination refers to extensively discussing and revisiting problems, speculating about problems, and focusing on negative feelings. Friendship research indicates that self-disclosure leads to close relationships; however, coping research indicates that dwelling on negative topics leads to emotional difficulties. Co-rumination is a single construct that integrates both perspectives and is proposed to be related both to positive friendship adjustment and problematic emotional adjustment. Third-, fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade participants (N = 608) responded to questionnaires, including a new measure of co-rumination. Co-rumination was related to high-quality, close friendships and aspects of depression and anxiety. Girls reported co-ruminating more than did boys, which helped to account for girls' more positive friendship adjustment and greater internalizing symptoms. Other analyses addressed whether co-rumination and the related constructs of self-disclosure and rumination had different relations with friendship and emotional adjustment.
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| [54] |
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| [55] |
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| [56] |
Little is understood about how emotion regulation strategies typically used to regulate one's own emotions can be used to help others in distress, a process we refer to as social emotion regulation. We integrated research on social support, the self-regulation of emotion, and appraisal theories to hypothesize that different kinds of support and emotion regulation strategies should be differentially helpful for others, depending on the kind of emotion they are experiencing. Specifically, we predicted that helping others to actively modify their situation, as opposed to their appraisals and emotional responses, will be more effective for those experiencing anxiety as anxiety is a response to appraising threat in one's environment. However, helping others to modify their appraisals and emotions should be more effective for those experiencing sadness as sadness is a response to an irrevocable loss. To test this, we created a novel paradigm in which regulation targets were recruited online to write about personal events causing anxiety or sadness and regulation providers were recruited to provide written help to the targets. Study 1 supported the hypothesis using strategies drawn from the social support literature (advice vs. emotional support). Study 2 used strategies drawn from the literature on the self-regulation of emotion (situation modification vs. reappraisal) to demonstrate that as predicted, different strategies are believed to be differentially helpful depending on the target's emotion and when adjusting for individual differences in social and affective functioning, targets judge social emotion regulation strategies to be differentially helpful when implemented by providers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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| [57] |
Humans tend to use the self as a reference point to perceive the world and gain information about other people's mental states. However, applying such a self-referential projection mechanism in situations where it is inappropriate can result in egocentrically biased judgments. To assess egocentricity bias in the emotional domain (EEB), we developed a novel visuo-tactile paradigm assessing the degree to which empathic judgments are biased by one's own emotions if they are incongruent to those of the person we empathize with. A first behavioral experiment confirmed the existence of such EEB, and two independent fMRI experiments revealed that overcoming biased empathic judgments is associated with increased activation in the right supramarginal gyrus (rSMG), in a location distinct from activations in right temporoparietal junction reported in previous social cognition studies. Using temporary disruption of rSMG with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation resulted in a substantial increase of EEB, and so did reducing visuo-tactile stimulation time as shown in an additional behavioral experiment. Our findings provide converging evidence from multiple methods and experiments that rSMG is crucial for overcoming emotional egocentricity. Effective connectivity analyses suggest that this may be achieved by early perceptual regulation processes disambiguating proprioceptive first-person information (touch) from exteroceptive third-person information (vision) during incongruency between self- and other-related affective states. Our study extends previous models of social cognition. It shows that although shared neural networks may underlie emotional understanding in some situations, an additional mechanism subserved by rSMG is needed to avoid biased social judgments in other situations.
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| [58] |
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| [59] |
Cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) is a practical, goal-focused approach that helps children understand the relationship between their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. The aim is to identify the dysfunctional and distorted cognitions associated with their psychological problems and to create more functional and balanced cognitive patterns that create less emotional distress and more helpful behaviours. CBT has strong evidence as an effective intervention for children and adolescents with emotional problems. The benefits for children with physical health and chronic conditions appear promising, although further research is required to substantiate these gains.
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| [60] |
Anxious youth often have trouble regulating negative affect (NA) and tend to over-rely on parents when faced with challenges. It is unclear how social interactions with parents or peers actually helps or hinders anxious youths' success in regulating NA. The aim of this study was to examine whether the success of anxious youths' emotion regulation strategies differed according to social context. We compared the effectiveness of co-ruminating, co-problem solving and co-distracting with parents/peers for regulating anxious youth's NA in response to stress in their daily lives. We also examined the benefit of attempting each strategy socially vs. non-socially (e.g., co-ruminating vs. ruminating). One-hundred-seventeen youth (9-14) with a current diagnosis of Separation Anxiety Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and/or Social Phobia completed an ecological momentary assessment (14 calls over 5 days), reporting on recent stressors, their affective state, presence of others, and emotion regulation strategies within the prior hour. Mixed linear models revealed that co-distracting was the most effective social strategy for reducing NA, but only for boys. Co-rumination was the least effective social strategy for regulating NA. Regarding social context, only co-distracting was more effective for regulating NA over distracting alone, but only among anxious boys. Results suggest that co-rumination is an ineffective use of social support for regulating NA. Anxious boys may benefit from social support by co-distracting with parents/peers, but improper use may reflect avoidance and contribute to long-term anxiety maintenance. Results extend research on gender differences in interpersonal relationships and emotion regulation.
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| [61] |
Anticipating the future is an important psychological process that facilitates adaptive functioning. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) is an event-related potential index of anticipation that is elicited in the several hundred milliseconds before an outcome occurs. The SPN is elicited by emotional stimuli, such as electric shocks, and has been proposed to reflect emotional anticipation. To better characterize the functional significance of the SPN, the current study examined the effects of uncertain threat on SPN amplitude. Fifty-three participants from the community completed a task that compared the SPN when anticipating uncertain threat (a 50% chance of electric shock), certain threat (a 100% chance of electric shock), and safety (a 0% chance of electric shock). The SPN was enhanced by uncertain threat relative to certain threat and safety. Thus, the SPN appears to be specifically sensitive to uncertainty above and beyond threat. These results replicate and extend previous findings and inform theoretical accounts regarding the functional significance of the SPN. Furthermore, the findings highlight the utility of the SPN as a measure of anticipation and a tool for research on the effects of uncertainty, in line with recent calls for the development of additional laboratory-based measures of responding to uncertainty.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| [62] |
How we understand and respond to others' emotions (i.e., empathy) may be influenced by the regulatory processes that are used to shape which emotions we and others have (i.e., emotion regulation). Empathy and emotion regulation are complex multidimensional constructs and the relationship between their component processes is not well characterized. To enable future work to examine their relationship more closely, this chapter presents an integrative framework of empathy and emotion regulation. We begin by delineating the component processes that underlie empathy and emotion regulation, and the neural underpinnings of these processes. We then present an integrative framework describing the processes of empathy and how these may be acted upon by distinct regulatory strategies. We conclude with a brief consideration of contextual influences on empathy and emotion regulation using a reward-based heuristic.© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| [63] |
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| [64] |
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| [65] |
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| [66] |
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| [67] |
The present meta-analysis investigated the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation in modifying emotional outcomes as indexed by experiential, behavioral, and physiological measures. A systematic search of the literature identified 306 experimental comparisons of different emotion regulation (ER) strategies. ER instructions were coded according to a new taxonomy, and meta-analysis was used to evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy across studies. The findings revealed differences in effectiveness between ER processes: Attentional deployment had no effect on emotional outcomes (d(+) = 0.00), response modulation had a small effect (d(+) = 0.16), and cognitive change had a small-to-medium effect (d(+) = 0.36). There were also important within-process differences. We identified 7 types of attentional deployment, 4 types of cognitive change, and 4 types of response modulation, and these distinctions had a substantial influence on effectiveness. Whereas distraction was an effective way to regulate emotions (d(+) = 0.27), concentration was not (d(+) = -0.26). Similarly, suppressing the expression of emotion proved effective (d(+) = 0.32), but suppressing the experience of emotion or suppressing thoughts of the emotion-eliciting event did not (d(+) = -0.04 and -0.12, respectively). Finally, reappraising the emotional response proved less effective (d(+) = 0.23) than reappraising the emotional stimulus (d(+) = 0.36) or using perspective taking (d(+) = 0.45). The review also identified several moderators of strategy effectiveness including factors related to the (a) to-be-regulated emotion, (b) frequency of use and intended purpose of the ER strategy, (c) study design, and (d) study characteristics.
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| [68] |
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| [69] |
People often recruit social resources to manage their emotions, a phenomenon known as interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). Despite its importance, IER's psychological structure remains poorly understood. We propose that two key dimensions describe IER: (a) individuals' tendency to pursue IER in response to emotional events, and (b) the efficacy with which they perceive IER improves their emotional lives. To probe these dimensions, we developed the Interpersonal Regulation Questionnaire (IRQ), a valid and reliable measure of individual differences in IER. Factor analyses of participants' responses confirmed tendency and efficacy as independent dimensions of IER (Study 1; N = 285), and demonstrated independence between how individuals engage with IER in response to negative, versus positive, emotion. In Study 2 (N = 347), we found that individuals high in IER tendency and efficacy are more emotionally expressive, empathetic, and socially connected. Two subsequent studies highlighted behavioral consequences of IER dimensions: people high in IER tendency sought out others more often following experimentally induced emotion (Study 3; N = 400), and individuals high in IER efficacy benefitted more from social support after real-world emotional events (Study 4; N = 787). Finally, a field study of social networks in freshman dormitories revealed that individuals high in IER tendency and efficacy developed more supportive relationships during the first year of college (Study 5; N = 193). These data (a) identify distinct dimensions underlying IER, (b) demonstrate that these dimensions can be stably measured and separated from related constructs, and (c) reveal their implications for relationships and well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record(c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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| [70] |
Socially-induced cognitive emotion regulation (Social-Reg) is crucial for emotional well-being and social functioning; however, its brain mechanisms remain poorly understood. Given that both social cognition and cognitive emotion regulation engage key regions of the default-mode network (DMN), we hypothesized that Social-Reg would rely on the DMN, and that its effectiveness would be associated with social functioning. During functional MRI, negative emotions were elicited by pictures, and - via short instructions - a psychotherapist either down-regulated participants' emotions by employing reappraisal (Reg), or asked them to simply look at the pictures (Look). Adult Attachment Scale was used to measure social functioning. Contrasting Reg versus Look, aversive emotions were successfully reduced during Social-Reg, with increased activations in the prefrontal and parietal cortices, precuneus and the left temporo-parietal junction. These activations covered key nodes of the DMN and were associated with Social-Reg success. Furthermore, participants' attachment security was positively correlated with both Social-Reg success and orbitofrontal cortex involvement during Social-Reg. In addition, specificity of the neural correlates of Social-Reg was confirmed by comparisons with participants' DMN activity at rest and their brain activations during a typical emotional self-regulation task based on the same experimental paradigm without a psychotherapist. Our results provide first evidence for the specific involvement of the DMN in Social-Reg, and the association of Social-Reg with individual differences in attachment security. The findings suggest that DMN dysfunction, found in many neuropsychiatric disorders, may impair the ability to benefit from Social-Reg.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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| [71] |
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| [72] |
A key question in research on empathy is what interpersonal motivations might be activated by empathy. Does empathy promote only a concern with other's outcomes ("altruism"), as well as decreased concern with one's own outcomes ("selflessness"), or an increased concern with equality in outcomes ("egalitarianism")? These interpersonal motivations were assessed with a series of experimental games, and our manipulations of empathy paralleled earlier research on the empathy-altruism model. Participants received a (fictitious) note from another person outlining that he or she is coping with the anticipated loss of his or her father in conditions that emphasized taking the other's perspective or an objective perspective (high and low empathy), whereas another group of participants received no note (no empathy). Consistent with our hypotheses, results revealed that a concern with another's well-being (altruism) was greater in the two empathy conditions than in the no-empathy condition. Further, the authors observed no effect of empathy on selfishness or egalitarianism, two motivations that were substantially present independent of empathy. Thus, the findings suggest that empathy adds altruistic motivation to already existing selfish and egalitarian motivation.2008 APA, all rights reserved
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| [73] |
Many studies have shown effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) and high-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) on elevating cortical excitability. Moreover, tRNS with direct current (DC)-offset is more likely to lead to increases in cortical excitability than solely tRNS. While a-tDCS over primary motor cortex (M1) has been shown to attenuate pain perception, tRNS with DC-offset may prove as an effective means for pain relief.This study aimed to examine effects of a-tDCS and high-frequency tRNS + DC-offset over M1 on pain expectation and perception, and assess whether these effects could be influenced by the certainty of pain expectation.Using a double-blinded and sham-controlled design, 150 healthy participants were recruited to receive a single-session a-tDCS, high-frequency tRNS + DC-offset, or sham stimulation over M1. The expectation and perception of electrical stimulation in certain and uncertain contexts were assessed at baseline, immediately after, and 30 min after stimulation.Compared with sham stimulation, a-tDCS induced immediate analgesic effects that were greater when the stimulation outcome was expected with uncertainty; tRNS induced immediate and sustained analgesic effects that were mediated by decreasing pain expectation. Nevertheless, we found no strong evidence for tRNS being more effective for attenuating pain than a-tDCS.The analgesic effects of a-tDCS and tRNS showed different temporal courses, which could be related to the more sustained effectiveness of high-frequency tRNS + DC-offset in elevating cortical excitability. Moreover, expectations of pain intensity should be taken into consideration to maximize the benefits of neuromodulation.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.
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| [74] |
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| [75] |
Contemporary emotion regulation research emphasizes intrapersonal processes such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, but people experiencing affect commonly choose not to go it alone. Instead, individuals often turn to others for help in shaping their affective lives. How and under what circumstances does such interpersonal regulation modulate emotional experience? Although scientists have examined allied phenomena such as social sharing, empathy, social support, and prosocial behavior for decades, there have been surprisingly few attempts to integrate these data into a single conceptual framework of interpersonal regulation. Here we propose such a framework. We first map a "space" differentiating classes of interpersonal regulation according to whether an individual uses an interpersonal regulatory episode to alter their own or another person's emotion. We then identify 2 types of processes--response-dependent and response-independent--that could support interpersonal regulation. This framework classifies an array of processes through which interpersonal contact fulfills regulatory goals. More broadly, it organizes diffuse, heretofore independent data on "pieces" of interpersonal regulation, and identifies growth points for this young and exciting research domain.
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| [76] |
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) are both crucial structures involved in voluntary emotional regulation. However, it remains unclear whether the functions of these two cortical regions that are involved in emotional regulation, which are usually active in non-social situations, could be generalized to the regulation of social pain as well. This study employed transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the causal relationship between the DLPFC/VLPFC and the emotional regulation of social pain via distraction and reappraisal. Ninety human participants (45 males and 45 females) initially underwent either active (DLPFC/VLPFC,n= 30/30) or sham (vertex,n= 30) TMS sessions. Participants were then instructed to use both distraction and reappraisal strategies to downregulate any negative emotions evoked by social exclusion pictures. Convergent results of the subjective emotional rating and electrophysiological indices demonstrated that: (1) both the DLPFC and VLPFC highly facilitate the downregulation of affective responses caused by social exclusion, revealing a causal role of these lateral PFCs in voluntary emotional regulation of both non-social and social pain; and (2) these two cortical regions showed relative functional specificity for distraction (DLPFC) and reappraisal (VLPFC) strategies, which helps to refine the cortical targeting of therapeutic protocols. In addition, the TMS effect was sustainable for at least 1 h, showcasing the potential feasibility of using this method in clinical practice. Together, these findings provide cognitive and neural evidence for the targeting of the VLPFC and/or the DLPFC to improve emotional regulation abilities, especially in social contexts.
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| [77] |
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| [78] |
Sadness regulation is crucial for maintaining the romantic relationships of couples. Interpersonal emotion regulation, including affective engagement (AE) and cognitive engagement (CE), activates social brain networks. However, it is unclear how AE and CE regulate sadness in couples through affective bonds. We recruited 30 heterosexual couple dyads and 30 heterosexual stranger dyads and collected functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning data while each dyad watched sad or neutral videos and while the regulator regulated the target’s sadness. Then, we characterized interbrain synchronization (IBS) and Granger causality (GC). The results indicated that AE and CE were more effective for couples than for strangers and that sadness evaluation of female targets was lower than that of male targets. CE-induced IBS at CH13 (BA10, right middle frontal gyrus) was lower for female targets than for male targets, while no gender difference in AE was detected. GC change at CH13 during CE was lower in the sad condition for male targets than for female targets, while no gender difference in AE was discovered. These observations suggest that AE and CE activate affective bonds but that CE was more effective for regulating sadness in female targets, revealing different neural patterns of cognitive and affective sadness regulation in couples.
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| [79] |
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| [80] |
Evidence suggests that explicit reappraisal has limited regulatory effects on high-intensity emotions, mainly due to the depletion of cognitive resources occupied by the high-intensity emotional stimulus itself. The implicit form of reappraisal has proved to be resource-saving and therefore might be an ideal strategy to achieve the desired regulatory effect in high-intensity situations. In this study, we explored the regulatory effect of explicit and implicit reappraisal when participants encountered low- and high-intensity negative images. The subjective emotional rating indicated that both explicit and implicit reappraisal down-regulated negative experiences, irrespective of intensity. However, the amplitude of the parietal late positive potential (LPP; a neural index of experienced emotional intensity) showed that only implicit reappraisal had significant regulatory effects in the high-intensity context, though both explicit and implicit reappraisal successfully reduced the emotional neural responses elicited by low-intensity negative images. Meanwhile, implicit reappraisal led to a smaller frontal LPP amplitude (an index of cognitive cost) compared to explicit reappraisal, indicating that the implementation of implicit reappraisal consumes limited cognitive control resources. Furthermore, we found a prolonged effect of implicit emotion regulation introduced by training procedures. Taken together, these findings not only reveal that implicit reappraisal is suitable to relieve high-intensity negative experiences as well as neural responses, but also highlight the potential benefit of trained implicit regulation in clinical populations whose frontal control resources are limited.© 2023. Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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