ABSTRACTPrevious work has shown that a stooped posture may activate negative mood. Extending this work, the present experiments examine how stooped body posture influences recovery from pre-existing negative mood. In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to receive either a negative or neutral mood induction, after which participants were instructed to take either a stooped, straight, or control posture while writing down their thoughts. Stooped posture led to less mood recovery in the negative mood condition, (...) and more negative mood in the neutral mood condition. Furthermore, stooped posture led to more negative thoughts overall compared to straight or control postures. In Experiment 2, all participants underwent a negative mood induction, after which half received cognitive reappraisal instructions and half received no instructions. Mood-congruent cognitions were assessed through autobiographical memory recall. Again, stooped position led to less mood recovery. Notably, this was independent of regulation instruction. These findings demonstrate for the first time that posture plays an important role in recovering from negative mood. (shrink)

We extend the work of Ivancovsky et al. by proposing that in addition to novelty seeking, mood regulation goals – including enhancing positive mood and repairing negative mood – motivate both creativity and curiosity. Additionally, we discuss how the effects of mood on state of mind are context-dependent (not fixed), and how such flexibility may impact creativity and curiosity.

Emotions and moods have been distinguished in the literature. If they are distinct, we may expect emotion regulation and mood regulation to be distinct too. We show that although emotion regulation and mood regulation are considered theoretically distinct, they are often confounded empirically. We review characteristics proposed to distinguish emotions from moods by different theoretical approaches to emotion. We also review challenges to these propositions, suggesting that one valid distinction involves intentionality. Building on the (...) above, we discuss possible differences between emotion regulation and mood regulation. Finally, we encourage the use of accurate terminology, argue for the importance of empirically testing hypotheses regarding distinctions between emotion regulation and mood regulation, and discuss possible implications. (shrink)

While previous research has linked executive attention to emotion regulation, the current study investigated the role of attentional alerting (i.e., efficient use of external warning cues) on younger (N=39) and older (N=44) adults’ use of gaze to regulate their mood in real time. Participants viewed highly arousing unpleasant images while reporting their mood and were instructed to deliberately manage how they felt and to minimise the effect of those stimuli on their mood. Fixations toward the most (...) negative areas of the images were recorded with eye tracking. We examined whether looking less at the most negative regions, compared to each individual's own tendency, was a beneficial mood regulatory strategy and how it interacted with age and alerting ability. High alerting older adults, who rely more on external cues to guide their attention, experienced a smaller decline in mood over time by activating a less-negative-looking approach (compared to their own average tendency), effectively looking away from the most negative areas of the images. More negative gaze patterns predicted better mood for younger adults, though this effect decreased over time. Alerting did not moderate gaze–mood links in younger adults. Successful mood regulation may thus depend on particular combinations of age, fixation, and attention. (shrink)

Music is a tool used in daily life in order to mitigate negative and enhance positive emotions. Listeners may orientate their engagement with music around its ability to facilitate particular emotional responses and to subsequently regulate mood. Existing scales have aimed to gauge both individual coping orientations in response to stress, as well as individual use of music for the purposes of mood regulation. This study utilised pre-validated scales through an online survey in order to measure whether (...) music’s use in mood regulation is influenced by coping orientations and/or demographic variables in response to the lockdown measures imposed in the United Kingdom, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst factor analyses show that the existing theoretical structure of the COPE model has indicated a poor fit for clustered coping orientations, a subsequent five-factor structure was determined for coping orientations in response to lockdown. Analyses include observations that positive reframing and active coping were strong predictors of music use in mood regulation amongst listener’s coping strategies, as was Substance Use. Higher Age indicated having a negative effect on music’s use in mood regulation, whilst factors such as gender were not seen to be significant in relation to the use of music in mood regulation within this context. These results provide insight into how individuals have engaged with music orientated coping strategies in response to a unique stressor. (shrink)

ABSTRACTEmotion regulation is a topic of great interest due to its relevance to navigating everyday life, as well as its relevance to psychopathology. Recent research indicates that beliefs about t...

Despite repeated calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion in nursing education and the significance of disability for the vocation of nursing, the voices and experiences of nursing faculty with disabilities are largely absent from our literature. In this paper, we present a critical grounded theory of the experiences of disabled nursing faculty in academe to begin to amend this gap. Using critical disability studies as a sensitizing framework and building on prior work on racism and other systems of oppression in (...) nursing, we theorize that nursing academe is a normalized space produced by White, able‐mindbodied, and cis‐heteropatriarchal discourses that regulate the boundaries of inclusion via exclusionary social norms. Further, we describe the operations of normalcy in nursing academe, discuss implications for education and health care, and consider avenues for change. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes to daily life and in the first wave in the UK, it led to a societal shutdown including playing sport and concern was placed for the mental health of athletes. Identifying mood states experienced in lockdown and self-regulating strategies is useful for the development of interventions to help mood management. Whilst this can be done on a general level, examination of sport-specific effects and the experience of athletes and coaches can help develop (...) interventions grounded in real world experiences. The present study investigated perceived differences in mood states of boxers before and during COVID-19 isolation in the first lockdown among boxers. Boxing is an individual and high-contact sport where training tends to form a key aspect of their identity. Boxers develop close relationships with their coach and boxing. Hence boxers were vulnerable to experiencing negative mood, and support via the coach was potentially unavailable. Participants were 58 experienced participants. Boxers completed the Brunel Mood Scale to assess mood before COVID-19 using a retrospective approach and during COVID-19 using a “right now” time frame. Boxers responded to open-ended questions to capture mood regulation strategies used. Coaches responded to open ended questions to capture how they helped regulate boxer’s mood. MANOVA results indicated a large significant increase in the intensity of unpleasant moods and reduction in vigor during COVID-19. Using Lane and Terry conceptual framework, results showed participants reporting depressed mood also reported an extremely negative mood profile as hypothesized. Qualitative data indicated that effective mood-regulation strategies used included maintaining close coach-athlete contact and helping create a sense of making progress in training. When seen collectively, findings illustrate that mood state responses to COVID-19 were severe. It is suggested that that active self-regulation and self-care should be a feature of training programmes to aid coaches and boxers in regulating mood when faced with severe situational changes. (shrink)

In the healthy state, both circadian rhythm and mood are stable against perturbations, yet they are capable of adjusting to altered internal cues or ongoing changes in external conditions. The dual demands of stability and flexibility are met by the collective properties of complex neural networks. Disruption of this balance underlies both circadian rhythm abnormality and mood disorders. However, we do not fully understand the network properties that govern the crosstalk between the circadian system and mood (...) class='Hi'>regulation. This puzzle reflects a challenge at the center of neurobiology, and its solution requires the successful integration of existing data across all levels of neural organization, from molecules, cells, circuits, network dynamics, to integrated mental function. This essay discusses several open questions confronting the cross‐level synthesis, and proposes that circadian regulation, and its role in mood, stands as a uniquely tractable system to study the causal mechanisms of neural adaptation.Also watch the Video Abstract.Editor's suggested further reading in BioEssays Major depressive disorder: A loss of circadian synchrony? Abstract. (shrink)

ABSTRACTNaturalistic studies of emotional reactivity in depression have repeatedly found larger decreases in negative affect among depressed individuals in response to daily positive events. T...

To investigate the universality and cultural specificity of emotion processing in children from different ethnic groups (Han, Jingpo and Dai), we conducted three questionnaires, including emotional contagion scale, emotion regulation scale and the Chinese mood adjective check list (CMACL), among 1,362 ethnic Han, Dai and Jingpo participants (Mage = 13.78 years). We found emotion regulation (reappraisal and suppression) mediated the relations between emotional contagion and mood state, relation: (1) emotional contagion (positive and negative) increased positive (...) class='Hi'>mood state and decreased negative mood state by reappraisal, and (2) Negative contagion finally increased negative mood state by weaken effect of reappraisal and enhance effect of suppression. Importantly, we found both universality and ethnic cultural specificity in the relations among emotional contagion, emotion regulation, and state mood. Firstly, the cultural specificity: (1) For Dai and Jingpo participants, negative contagion positively predicted reappraisal, while Han participants did not; (2) Jingpo participants demonstrated a weaker negative relation between reappraisal and negative mood state, and a stronger positive relation between negative contagion and suppression; and (3) Dai participants was the only ethnic group that showed a negative connection between negative contagion and positive mood state. Secondly, the emotion universality: Three ethnics both showed positive relations between negative contagion and negative mood, between suppression and negative mood; For all of them, positive contagion positively predicted positive mood state, mediated by reappraisal. In this paper, we discuss universal emotion processes and ethnic cultural differences in these emotion processes. (shrink)

Experimental induction of sad mood states is a mainstay of laboratory research on affect and cognition, mood regulation, and mood disorders. Typically, the success of such mood manipulations is reported as a statistically significant pre- to post-induction change in the self-rated intensity of the target affect. The present commentary was motivated by an unexpected finding in one of our studies concerning the response rate to a well-validated sad mood induction. Using the customary statistical approach, (...) we found a significant mean increase in self-rated sadness intensity with a moderate effect size, verifying the “success” of the mood induction. However, that “success” masked that, between one-fifth and about one-third of our samples reported absolutely no sadness in response to the mood induction procedure. We consider implications of our experience for emotion research by commenting upon the typically overlooked phenomenon of nonresponse, suggesting changes in reporting practices regarding mood induction success, and outlining future directions to help scientists determine why some subjects do not respond to experimental mood induction. (shrink)

This paper aims to clarify and reformulate the conceptual relationship between emotions and moods in light of recent researches in philosophy and cognitive psychology. I argue that the mechanism of mood may produces cognitive biases that affect the appraisals involved in emotions, whereas the mechanism of emotion may produce physiological and behavioral responses that affect the energy level being monitored by mood. These two distinct mechanisms can affect each other repeatedly and continuously, which form the mood-emotion loop. (...) I argue that this model may help explain the interaction between emotions and mood, and may shed light on the understanding of the regulation of emotion and mood disorders. (shrink)

What is the biological function of daily mood variations? What is the relationship between mood and such factors as exercise, time of day, nutrition, stress, and illness? Drawing on his own wide-ranging research concerning subjective assessments of mood and on extensive research by others, Dr. Thayer presents a comprehensive theory of normal mood states, viewing them as subjective components of two biological arousal systems, one which people find energizing, and the other which people describe as producing (...) tension. The author explains these two mood effects in relation to a complex relationship between energy and tension. Relevant research is systematically reviewed, and moods are analyzed in relation to circadian rhythms, exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress, and cognition. Perceptual and motivational effects of mood are also discussed, as are measurement and research design issues. Unique in its depth and comprehensiveness, this book will be of interest not only to researchers in psychology, biology, and medicine, but its clear style of presentation and the practical activities suggested for mood regulation will make it interesting to general readers as well. (shrink)

Associations between screen time and mental health may be driven by increased use in young people with heightened symptoms as a means of modifying negative mood. However, the direct effect of technology use on mood remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of active and passive social media use on an induced sad or neutral mood by randomising young people (16–24 years; N = 116) to a sad or neutral mood induction task and assessing (...) mood after being instructed to engage in active or passive social media use. We found both active and passive social media use alleviated sad mood but had no effect on neutral mood. Active social media use was associated with functional emotion regulation strategies relative to passive social media use. These findings suggest a possible beneficial effect of social media use on sad mood, however, longer-term effects on mental health are yet to be determined. (shrink)

Mood in humans is a complex phenomenon that integrates emotion , cognition, perception, ideation, and action in a coherent manner. In bipolar disorder extremes of mood occur outside the normal range, in which all the above functions are coherently affected. Mood is controlled by a series of separate but interactive brain circuits that involve much of the brain, but particularly the limbic system. The question addressed in this paper is whether the coordination of all these separate systems (...) into one coherent functional mood is mediated by non-linear dynamics acting between these systems as equal participants; or whether it is affected by a single master regulator controlling the others. The possible roles, as master regulators, of non-linear dynamically linked populations of neurons, and of the C1–C3 adrenergic nuclei in the medulla is discussed. (shrink)

Philosophical work exploring the relation between cognition and the Internet is now an active area of research. Some adopt an externalist framework, arguing that the Internet should be seen as environmental scaffolding that drives and shapes cognition. However, despite growing interest in this topic, little attention has been paid to how the Internet influences our affective life — our moods, emotions, and our ability to regulate these and other feeling states. We argue that the Internet scaffolds not only cognition but (...) also affect. Using various case studies, we consider some ways that we are increasingly dependent on our Internet-enabled “techno-social niches” to regulate the contours of our own affective life and participate in the affective lives of others. We argue further that, unlike many of the other environmental resources we use to regulate affect, the Internet has distinct properties that introduce new dimensions of complexity to these regulative processes. First, it is radically social in a way many of these other resources are not. Second, it is a radically distributed and decentralized resource; no one individual or agent is responsible for the Internet’s content or its affective impact on users. Accordingly, while the Internet can profoundly augment and enrich our affective life and deepen our connection with others, there is also a distinctive kind of affective precarity built into our online endeavors as well. (shrink)

Postpartum depression is more prevalent in mothers and fathers of preterm infants compared to parents of full-term infants and may have long-term detrimental consequences for parental mental health and child development. The temperamental profile of an infant has been postulated as one of the important factors associated with parental depressiveness in the first months postpartum. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and perceived infant temperament at 3 months corrected age, and depressive symptoms at 6 months (...) corrected age among mothers and fathers of infants born preterm. We assessed 59 families with infants born before the 34th gestational week using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. We found that mothers’ scores on EPDS and infants’ Orienting/regulation at 3 months corrected age predicted mothers’ EPDS scores at 6 months corrected age. In particular, higher depressive scores were related to higher depressive symptoms at 6 months corrected age, whereas higher infant Orienting/regulation was related to lower depressive symptoms at 6 months corrected age. Due to the low internal consistency of EPDS at 6 months for fathers, we were unable to conduct similar analyses for fathers. Our results point to the importance of considering both early indices of maternal mood as well as mother-reported measures of preterm infant temperament in the attempts to predict levels of maternal depressiveness in later months of an infant’s life. Further studies are urgently needed in order to better understand the associations between depressiveness and infant temperament in fathers, and with more consideration for the severity of the effects of infant prematurity. (shrink)

Older adults report high emotional well-being, but age-comparative studies of emotion regulation strategies have not identified systematic age differences. We propose that emotion regulation tactics may be more promising. Emotion regulation tactics involve strategy implementation in a specific situation, and have features shared across strategies involving positive or negative elements (objects/thoughts) in the environment that may be approached or receded from in the regulation attempt (i.e., a valence dimension about the environmental element, and a direction dimension (...) indicating movement toward or away from it). Across several studies, older adults used more positive-approaching than negative-receding tactics. Positive-approaching tactics may also be more effective at regulating mood. We consider implications for aging, as well as group differences in emotion regulation behavior generally. (shrink)

Although the literature has focused on individual differences in authenticity, recent findings suggest that authenticity is sensitive to context; that is, it is also a state. We extended this perspective by examining whether incidental affect influences authenticity. In three experiments, participants felt more authentic when in a relatively positive than negative mood. The causal role of affect in authenticity was consistent across a diverse set of mood inductions, including explicit (Experiments 1 and 3) and implicit (Experiment 2) methods. (...) The link between incidental affect and state authenticity was not moderated by ability to down-regulate negative affect (Experiments 1 and 3) nor was it explained by negative mood increasing private self-consciousness or decreasing access to the self system (Experiment 3). The results indicate that mood is used as information to assess one's sense of authenticity. (shrink)

Source: Author: Oluwayemisi Olusola Akinmameji Although the negative representation of women in Nollywood movies is worrisome to scholars, they have done little as regards exploring the feminist linguistic analysis of these movies. Studies have focused on the misrepresentations of women with emphasis on the literary perspectives. This paper attempts a lexical and sentential analysis of feminist ideology of two Nollywood movies. The study adopted Norman Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis to explain way linguistic are used to instantiate feminist ideology (...) in the movies. Arugba and Maami produced by Tunde Kelani were purposively sampled because of the gender issues in them. Though some movies merely project women as witches and sex slaves, these two movies stand out among those that project the strengths of womanhood. The movies attempt to correct the negative impression about women. Linguistic features such as the lexical indices and mood system are examined. Larger scale features such as allusion and simile are also explored. The study suggests that despite the rot in the value system of the present day Nigeria, there are still women who pass for the ideal. Also, it was discovered that women can determine their fate regardless of what roles the society gives them and could survive even under the worst patriarchy. Beyond their weaknesses, women are necessary to maintain tranquility in the home and the larger society. This paper recommends that movie stakeholders should give responsible roles to women and women should be sensitive and alive to their responsibilities as regulators of the social political Nigerian entity. ]]>. (shrink)

A previous speaker has compared man's earth with communal quarters. The comparison makes its point but is probably not quite exact. If one were to look for a more accurate simile of the same nature, one might say that mankind is now living in a bus following an exponential highway. In front of it looms either an insurmountable hill or a chasm, and the passengers on the bus see the future through the prism of their emotional mood. Some insist (...) that it stop and that they move into caves, while others urge ascent into outer space or placing hopes on the "perhaps" of self-regulation. These extreme points of view have in common the fact that they are based on a feeling of hopeless helplessness. Terrestrial caves are not much better than those in outer space, while existence on other cosmic bodies requires not only the creation of an earthly environment in the ordinary meaning of the word but of artificial gravitation as well, or else the weakened muscles would be unable to support the mortal bodies of the "lunatics" and "martians." To stop dead or slow things down with a yellow light is also impossible. To stop is the equivalent of death or vegetating anabiotically, since natural systems cannot function under conditions approximating idling speed. (shrink)

High artistic achievements were repeatedly connected with poetry in the tradition of Western aesthetical thought, and the poetry with eliciting emotions. The same has happened within the tradition of film reviewing and theorising: poetry has been repeatedly evoked as a paradigmatic artistic achievement of particular films. But among the different affective states that can be elicited in humans by arts, attribution of ‘poetry’ typically addresses the eliciting and articulation of particular general moods, not the specific, episodic, short-term emotions. In this (...) paper, specified are the differences among emotions and moods, and how a distinct mood is achieved is demonstrated by the close analysis of the introductory descriptive scene in the film Citizen Kane. However, the crucial question is how very different and heterogeneous stylistic means pointed out in the analysis of the scene could elicit a particular, unique, holistic mood. In short, the answer is given by understanding that in the same way in which the moods selectively regulate our relations toward the world, choosing for the perception mood-congruent features of the world to sustain a particular mood, so the filmmakers choose a repertory of stylistic solutions congruent with the selectivity of the intended mood to elicit it in the immersed film viewer. (shrink)

Healthcare workers’ voice is of importance in decreasing medical accidents and improving the efficacy of hospital units. To investigate the impact and the underlying mechanisms of supervisors’ negative mood on healthcare workers’ voice behavior, based on the mood contagion perspective, we designed a cross-sectional study, with 299 healthcare workers from mainland China completed the questionnaires. The results indicated supervisors’ negative mood was positively related to healthcare workers’ negative mood, which further led to less constructive voice and (...) more defensive voice. Moreover, the healthcare worker’s emotional intelligence aspect of self-emotion appraisal moderated this relationship, but not others-emotion appraisal. We believe healthcare workers’ supervisors should pay attention to their negative mood expression and regulation. In the hope of reducing being influenced by supervisors’ negative mood, training about noticing and recognizing their own emotions are needed for healthcare workers. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that drawing improves short-term mood in children when used to distract from rather than express negative thoughts and feelings. The current study sought to examine how drawing might elevate mood in children ages 6–12 by examining the role played by absorption, enjoyment, and perceived competence as well as entering an imaginary world; and whether children spontaneously use drawing to distract from a sad mood. Across three studies, children were asked to think of a (...) disappointing event. After a sad mood induction, they drew for 5 min. Mood was measured before and after the mood induction and after drawing. Three main findings emerged. First, drawing to distract led to greater absorption and enjoyment than did drawing to express. Second, children’s mood improved equally when drawing imaginary and real scenes showing that the key ingredient is that the content of the drawings be distracting in nature. Third, drawing improved mood even when children were given no instructions on the content of their drawings and children were more likely to use drawing as a way to distract themselves from a sad mood. These studies help to define the characteristics of drawing activities that foster mood improvement in children and highlight the important role of the arts in emotion regulation. (shrink)

Zillmann's mood-management theory has acquired a prominent place in media psychology and makes reliable predictions about people's hedonistically motivated mood regulation via entertainment offerings. However, the full potential for explaining affect regulation through media usage has not been exhausted so far. Therefore, we aim at an integrative view of the field based on empirical findings from communication studies as well as on the background of contemporary theories of mood and emotion. The purpose of this analysis (...) is to argue towards an integrative theoretical perspective which considers both unconscious and conscious/reflected processes of affect regulation through media, supplements the hedonistic motive with other non-hedonistic, instrumental motives of affect regulation, looks at selection behavior as well as at other behavioral and cognitive strategies of affect regulation, and encompasses individual attributes. (shrink)

The emerging field of lipidomics has identified lipids as key players in disease physiology. Their physicochemical diversity allows precise control of cell structure and signaling events through modulation of membrane properties and trafficking of proteins. As such, lipids are important regulators of brain function and have been implicated in neurodegenerative and mood disorders. Importantly, environmental chronic stress has been associated with anxiety and depression and its exposure in rodents has been extensively used as a model to study these diseases. (...) With the accessibility to modern mass‐spectrometry lipidomic platforms, it is now possible to snapshot the extensively interconnected lipid network. Here, we review the fundamentals of lipid biology and outline a framework for the interpretation of lipidomic studies as a new approach to study brain pathophysiology. Thus, lipid profiling provides an exciting avenue for the identification of disease signatures with important implications for diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders. (shrink)

One of the new structures of positive psychology that has received special attention is academic self-regulation. It involves controlling one’s behavior, emotions, and thoughts to reach a long-term purpose. Learning how to self-regulate is an important skill that language learners learn both for emotional maturity and later social connections. There are various emotional factors that might be associated with the notion of self-regulation. Hope and joy are among the emotional factors that might influence language learners’ self-regulation; therefore, (...) this literature review addresses the state of academic self-regulation in relationship with hope and joy. Reviewing the literature demonstrated that hope and joy affect language learners’ self-regulation. Hope and joy increase vitality, health, life satisfaction, and promote psychological wellbeing in EFL learners. They influence mental and physical health that is positively correlated with various scales, such as mental health, positive mood, avoidance of stressful life events, vitality and happiness in life, and problem-solving skill. The findings revealed that self-regulation in language learners depends on various demographic and educational factors that can improve learner’ language performance, mental health, and vitality of language learners. Curriculum designers and language teachers need to focus the findings of the current study on creating a more adequate and efficient language teaching environment. (shrink)

ABSTRACTRecent research suggests that impaired emotion regulation may play an important role in the development of youth psychopathology. However, little research has explored the effects of ER strategies on affect in early adolescents. In Study 1, we examined if early adolescents are able to use distraction and whether the effects of this strategy are similar to talking to one’s mother. In Study 2, we compared the effects of distraction, cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination. In both studies, participants received instructions (...) on how to regulate their emotions after a standardised negative mood induction. In general, the results indicated that distraction, but also cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, had promising short-term effects on positive and negative affect in early adolescents. These findings suggest that targeting adaptive ER skills, such as distraction, acceptance, and cognitive reappraisal, may be an important strategy to prevent or treat psychological pro... (shrink)

When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. This represents an exciting new field for psychology, curation, and health interventions, suggesting a widely-accessible, cost-effective, and non-pharmaceutical means of regulating factors such as mood or anxiety. However, can similar impacts be found with online presentations? If so, this would open up positive outcomes to an even-wider population—a trend accelerating due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its promise, (...) this question, and the underlying mechanisms of art interventions and impacts, has largely not been explored. Participants were asked to engage with one of two online exhibitions from Google Arts and Culture. With just 1–2 min exposure, both improved negative mood, state-anxiety, loneliness, and wellbeing. Stepdown analysis suggested the changes can be explained primarily via negative mood, while improvements in mood correlated with aesthetic appraisals and cognitive-emotional experience of the exhibition. However, no difference was found between exhibitions. We discuss the findings in terms of applications and targets for future research. (shrink)

Emotional inertia (i.e. the tendency for emotions to persist over time) is robustly associated with lower wellbeing. Yet, we know little about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Good quality sleep and frequent use of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies reduce the persistence of negative affect (NA) over time. However, whether sleep and adaptive CER strategy use work in concert to reduce NA inertia is unclear. In the current study, participants (N = 245) watched a series of film clips (...) and rated how each clip made them feel on negative and positive affective states. Emotion ratings were collected again after a short rest period to determine the persistence of clip-induced affect. Standardised questionnaires were used to index participants’ sleep quality and tendency to engage in adaptive CER strategies. Autoregressive models demonstrated that better sleep quality was associated with lower NA inertia (d = 0.25). This association also held when controlling for mean and variability of NA. Interestingly, the association between adaptive CER strategy use and NA inertia was observed irrespective of whether sleep quality was good, average, or poor (d = 0.13). These findings suggest that sleep and adaptive CER strategies hold independent rather than interdependent roles in maintaining emotional wellbeing. (shrink)

Film clips are proven to be one of the most efficient techniques in emotional induction. However, there is scant literature on the effect of this procedure in older adults and, specifically, the effect of using different positive stimuli. Thus, the aim of the present study was to examine emotional differences between young and older adults and to know how a set of film clips works as mood induction procedure in older adults, especially, when trying to elicit attachment-related emotions. To (...) this end, we use this procedure to analyze differences in subjective emotional response between young and older adults. A sample of 57 older adults and 83 young adults watched a film set previously validated in young population. Their responses were studied in an individual laboratory session to elicit 6 target emotions (disgust, fear, sadness, anger, amusement and tenderness) and neutral state. Self-reported emotional experience was measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). Our results show that film clips are capable of evoking positive and negative emotions in older adults. Furthermore, older adults experienced more intensely negative emotions than young adults, especially in response to disgust and fear clips. They also reported higher arousal than young adults, especially in the case of sadness, anger and tenderness clips. Nevertheless, the older adults recovered more easily from the effects of the emotion induction. The young adults reported higher arousal ratings than older adults in response to amusement film clips. On the other hand, this study reflects the importance of controlling the baseline state to study the real strength of mood induction. Overall, current data suggests significant differences occur in emotional response in adult age and that film clips are an effective tool for studying positive and negative emotions in aging research. (shrink)

Non-suicidal self-injury 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: self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion reactivity, self-reported general tendencies of negative and positive emotion regulation, and 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 and a comparison group with no history of NSSI. 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. (shrink)

Research traditions on cognition and depression focus on relatively unconnected aspects of cognitive functioning. On one hand, the neuropsychological perspective has concentrated on cognitive control difficulties as a prominent feature of this condition. On the other hand, the clinical psychology perspective has focused on cognitive biases and repetitive negative patterns of thinking for emotional information. A review of the literature from both fields reveals that difficulties are more evident for mood-congruent materials, suggesting that cognitive control difficulties interact with cognitive (...) biases to hinder cognitive switching, working memory updating, and inhibition of irrelevant information. Connecting research from these two traditions, we propose a novel integrative cognitive model of depression in which the interplay between mood-congruent cognitive control difficulties, cognitive biases, and rumination may ultimately lead to ineffective emotion-regulation strategies to downregulate negative mood and upregulate positive mood. (shrink)

Sleep has a profound effect on our mood, but insight in the mechanisms underlying this association is still lacking. We tested whether emotion regulation is a mediator in the relationship between fragmented sleep and mood disturbance. The effect of fragmented sleep on the emotion regulation strategies, including cognitive reappraisal, distraction, acceptance and suppression ability, was assessed. We further tested whether the use of these strategies, as well as rumination and self-criticism, mediated the association between fragmented sleep (...) and negative and positive affect. Participants (N = 69) wore an actiwatch and filled in a sleep diary for 12 consecutive nights. They had one control night and one sleep fragmentation night. Emotion regulation ability was assessed with an experimental task. Usage of emotion regulation strategies and negative and positive affect were assessed four times during the day with a survey after the control and sleep fragmentation night. Cognitive reappraisal, distraction, acceptance and suppression ability did not differ between the sleep fragmentation and control condition. However, participants reported higher usage of rumination and distraction after the sleep fragmentation night and rumination significantly mediated the negative association between fragmented sleep and negative affect. (shrink)

Adolescence is a stage characterized by many biological and psychosocial changes, all of which may result in a decrease in subjective well-being. It is therefore necessary to identify those factors that contribute to increased life satisfaction, in order to promote positive development among young people. The aim of this study is to examine the dynamics of a set of variables that contribute to life satisfaction. A total of 1,188 adolescents completed the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends and Perception (...) of the School Environment Questionnaires, the Trait Meta Mood Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10, and Satisfaction with Life Scale for social support, emotion regulation, resilience, and life satisfaction. By applying structural equation modeling, the results reveal a direct prediction of family support, emotion regulation, and resilience on life satisfaction. Support from friends and emotion regulation was also found to explain resilience, and support from family and teachers was found to predict emotion regulation. In conclusion, emotion regulation and social support were found to indirectly affect life satisfaction among adolescents through resilience. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

This study presents a philosophical exploration of how regional dance, as a form of cultural heritage, influences emotional regulation and mental health, drawing on theories of psychological resilience and cognitive engagement with cultural practices. Engaging 206 participants from diverse regional, age, and occupational backgrounds, we employed the Simplified Mood State Scale, Anxiety Self-Rating Scale, and Depression Self-Rating Scale to quantitatively assess their emotional states. Our findings reveal that engagement in folk dance markedly enhances mood, with participants showing (...) lower scores on negative mood factors and higher on positive mood factors compared to those not involved in dance activities. Correlation analyses further indicated significant relationships between positive emotions, psychological resilience, and the appreciation of dance heritage, with coefficients of 0.5 and 0.450, respectively. Notably, psychological resilience exhibited a strong correlation (0.70) with the perception of cultural heritage, underscoring its crucial role in deepening the understanding and appreciation of cultural practices. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that psychological resilience mediates the relationship between emotional regulation and the perception of dance cultural heritage significantly. After accounting for the influence of psychological resilience, the impact of emotional regulation on heritage perception diminished, confirming the profound effect of psychological resilience. This study not only confirms the therapeutic potentials of dance in emotional management but also enriches our understanding of how cultural engagement acts as a medium for spiritual and emotional expression, aligning with philosophical inquiries into the interplay between tradition, spirituality, and well-being. (shrink)

Trait mindfulness confers emotional benefits and encourages skillful emotion regulation, in part because it helps people more deliberately attend to internal experiences and external surroundings. Such heightened attentional control might help skillfully deploy one’s attention towards certain kinds of stimuli, which may in turn help regulate emotions, but this remains unknown. Testing how trait mindful people deploy attention when regulating their emotions could help uncover the specific mechanisms of mindfulness that confer its emotional benefits. The present study aimed to (...) determine whether high trait mindfulness is associated with sustained attention biases to (i.e. longer gaze at) emotional scenes, when all participants are given the emotion regulation goal of staying in a positive mood. To measure this, we used eye tracking to assess selective attention to positive, neutral, and negative photographs. Higher trait mindfulness was associated with both a stronger attention bias for positive (vs. neutral and vs. negative) images, as well as greater success staying in a positive mood during viewing. Surprisingly, this attention bias towards the positive images did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness and maintenance of positive mood. Future work should compare visual attention to other emotion regulation strategies that may maximise positive affect for mindful people. (shrink)

In this book, Tom Cochrane develops a new control theory of the emotions and related affective states. Grounded in the basic principle of negative feedback control, his original account outlines a new fundamental kind of mental content called 'valent representation'. Upon this foundation, Cochrane constructs new models for emotions, pains and pleasures, moods, expressive behaviours, evaluative reasoning, personality traits and long-term character commitments. These various states are presented as increasingly sophisticated layers of regulative control, which together underpin the architecture of (...) the mind as a whole. Clearly structured and containing numerous diagrams and examples to illustrate the discussion, this study draws on the latest research from fields including philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, and will appeal to readers interested in the philosophy and cognitive science of emotion. (shrink)

Preeminent psychoanalyst Mortimer Ostow believes that early childhood emotional attachments form the cognitive underpinnings of spiritual experience and religious motivation. His hypothesis, which is verifiable, relies on psychological and neurobiological evidence but is respectful of the human need for spiritual value. Ostow begins by classifying the three parts of the spiritual experience: awe, Spirituality proper, and mysticism. After he pinpoints the psychological origins of these feelings in infancy, he discusses the foundations of religious sentiment and practice and the brain processes (...) associated with spiritual experience. He then focuses on spirituality's relationship to mood regulation, and the role of negative spirituality in fostering religious fundamentalism and demonic possession. Ostow concludes with an analysis of an essay by the psychoanalyst Donald M. Marcus, who recounts his own spiritual experience during a Native American-style "vision quest" in the woods. Marcus's account demonstrates the constructive potential of spirituality and the way in which spirituality retrieves and recapitulates feelings of attachment to the mother. Persuasively and brilliantly argued, _Spirit, Mind, and Brain_ brings the disciplines of religion, behavorial neuroscience, and philosophy to bear on a groundbreaking new method for understanding religious ritual and belief. (shrink)

Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, a response to distressing and adverse situations. In an aesthetic context, however, sadness is often associated with some degree of pleasure, as suggested by the ubiquity and popularity, throughout history, of music, plays, films and paintings with a sad content. Here, we focus on the fact that music regarded as sad is often experienced as pleasurable. Compared to other art forms, music has an exceptional ability to evoke a wide-range of feelings and (...) is especially beguiling when it deals with grief and sorrow. Why is it, then, that while human survival depends on preventing painful experiences, mental pain often turns out to be explicitly sought through music? In this article we consider why and how sad music can become pleasurable. We offer a framework to account for how listening to sad music can lead to positive feelings, contending that this effect hinges on correcting an ongoing homeostatic imbalance. Sadness evoked by music is found pleasurable (1) when it is perceived as non-threatening; (2) when it is aesthetically pleasing; and (3) when it produces psychological benefits such as mood regulation, and empathic feelings, caused, for example, by recollection of and reflection on past events. We also review neuroimaging studies related to music and emotion and focus on those that deal with sadness. Further exploration of the neural mechanisms through which stimuli that usually produce sadness can induce a positive affective state could help the development of effective therapies for disorders such as depression, in which the ability to experience pleasure is attenuated. (shrink)

The effect of contextual information on the resolution of ambiguity was investigated in a group of individuals awaiting dental treatment and a group of control individuals. Participants heard threat/neutral, neutral/neutral and positive/neutral homophones while being simultaneously presented with a context word that was consistent with one of the two meanings of the homophone. Participants then made a lexical decision task on a target word that was one of the two alternate spellings of the homophone. We found that the dental group (...) was more sensitive to context for all types of homophones, and there was no evidence for mood congruency. It also appeared that there might have been an element of mood regulation in the dental group, as they were slower to respond to the emotional targets overall. Our results show that sensitivity to context in state anxiety is a robust phenomenon and one that generalises to naturally occurring anxious moods. (shrink)

This paper describes how music fulfills two of its broadly recognized functions—“mood regulation” and “social cohesion”—in times of pandemics and social isolation. Through a trans-historical comparison of the musical activities of the Milanese during an outbreak of plague in 1576 with the musical activities observed during the COVID lockdowns in 2020 (such as balcony-singing and playlist-making), this paper suggests a framework for understanding the role of music in the care of the biological body and the social body in (...) times of medical disaster. (shrink)

Strategies to support the psychosocial well-being of older adults living in aged-care are needed; and evidence points toward music listening as an effective, non-pharmacological tool with many benefits to quality of life and well-being. Yet, the everyday listening practices of older adults living in residential aged-care remain under-researched. The current study explored older adults’ experiences of music listening in their daily lives while living in residential aged-care and considered how music listening might support their well-being. Specifically, what might go into (...) autonomous listening activities? 32 Australian residents living in two Australian care facilities participated in semi-structured interviews. The results of a qualitative thematic analysis revealed three themes pertaining to “previous music experiences and interest,” “current music listening,” and “barriers to listening.” While an interest in and access to music did not necessarily result in everyday listening practices, of those participants who did listen to music, perceived benefits included outcomes such as entertainment, enjoyment, relaxation, and mood regulation. Drawing on Ruud’s notion of music as a “cultural immunogen” supporting well-being and Self-Determination Theory, theoretical implications of the findings are addressed, relating to how to create and support music activities in aged-care facilities so that they are engaging, meaningful, and promote emotional regulation, community, and well-being. (shrink)

Attentional bias and emotion in older adults: Age-related differences in responses to an emotional Stroop task The purpose of the study was to examine whether older adults show an emotional interference effect in a Stroop task, and whether their RTs differ with regard to age, gender and tendencies of mood regulation. The sample consisted of 60 participants at the age from 65 to 85. Emotional version of Stroop task and the Mood Regulation Scales were used. The (...) results showed no significant differences in RTs to emotional and neutral words. Unexpectedly, a speeding effect was observed with the age of women. It appeared also that the effect of mood regulation tendencies was not significant for RTs. The last two effects are not consistent with the literature on cognitive and emotional aging. (shrink)