The effects of irrational, rational, and acceptance beliefs about emotions on the emotional response and perceived control of emotions

Emotion beliefs: conceptual review and compendium

Laypeople hold richly divergent beliefs about emotion, and these beliefs are consequential. Specific forms of belief that have been investigated include the usefulness, contagiousness, duration, dependence upon intersubjective experience, cognitively mediated properties, malleability, and hindering properties of emotion, just to name a few. Progress in this emerging sub-field of research has been hampered by the lack of a widely accepted definition of emotion belief able to capture all of these dimensions. Correspondingly, there has been a proliferation of different terminologies, constructs, and measures. The present review aims to address these obstacles by defining emotion belief, and subsequently re-considering existing constructs and measures that align with this definition. The latter is presented in the form of a comprehensive compendium of 21 different constructs and associated self-report measures that assess varying components of one's beliefs about emotions in general and/or about their own emotions, and an additional 5 scales that were designed to measure one's beliefs about another's emotions. From the more unified conceptualization of emotion belief presented here, critical areas of future research are highlighted.

How do fundamental emotion beliefs affect the rapid emotional processing? An ERP study

Beliefs about whether emotions are good or bad, controllable or uncontrollable are two fundamental emotion beliefs. Studies have confirmed the link between the two beliefs and emotional responses, but how emotion beliefs affect the process from emotional stimulus perception to emotion generation and automatic regulation is unclear. Answering this question helps to understand the role of emotion beliefs in emotional dysfunction and dysregulation and can provide a basis for effective emotion regulation. Therefore, the current study used event-related potential (ERP) measures to examine the time course and neural mechanisms by which emotional beliefs influence the processing of emotional pictures. One hundred participants were divided into four groups (25 per group) according to controllable or uncontrollable beliefs about emotions and good or bad beliefs about negative emotions, and viewed emotional negative and neutral pictures. Results showed that P2 was more positive in participants with emotion controllable vs. uncontrollable belief. The early posterior negativity (EPN) was more negative for unpleasant than neutral images in participants with emotion good and controllable beliefs as well as with bad and uncontrollable beliefs. On late positive potential (LPP), middle LPP (500-1000ms) was more positive in emotion good vs. bad belief holders and the late LPP (1000-2000 ms) was more positive for negative than neutral images in emotion uncontrollable belief holders. The findings suggest that fundamental emotion beliefs can affect individuals' early attention and late meaning evaluation towards unpleasant stimuli. Furthermore, they provide insight into altered beliefs about emotion in people with emotion dysfunction or dysregulation.

Effects of emotion, emotional tolerance, and emotional processing on reasoning

Emotion plays a significant role in our reasoning even without awareness, perhaps especially for individuals who have difficulties tolerating strong, negative emotions. Opportunity for reflection may help such individuals decide when emotions should influence reasoning. Two studies attempted to clarify the relationships among reasoning, emotions, and emotion tolerance (measured with the Affect Intolerance Scale). The first examined the effect of affect intolerance on a reasoning task. Participants were asked to determine whether conclusions logically followed from both emotional and neutral if-then statements. Emotion had a small effect on performance on the reasoning task, unmoderated by affect intolerance. The second study examined whether reflection on emotional responses impacts performance on the same reasoning task. Participants asked to reflect on their emotions performed more poorly on the reasoning task than participants asked to reflect on the task's cognitive aspects. People who endorse greater affect tolerance performed better in the cognitive reflection condition than the emotional reflection condition. People with less tolerance performed the same in both conditions. Overall, these studies support previous findings that emotion can negatively impact performance on reasoning tasks but suggest a more complex relationship for affect intolerance.

Childhood maltreatment and emotional distress: The role of beliefs about emotion and psychological inflexibility

The current study aimed to investigate the mediating role of negative beliefs about emotion and psychological inflexibility on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional distress. A total of 519 participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale II (LESS-II), and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II). All scales were significantly correlated. Two mediation analyses were tested. In the first model negative beliefs about emotion and psychological inflexibility mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and emotional distress measured by DASS-21 total score. In the second model, negative beliefs about emotion and psychological inflexibility mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and depression, anxiety, and stress measured by the subscales of DASS-21. Results suggest that maltreatment in childhood is associated with the individuals' approaches, plans and strategies in response to emotions, and psychological inflexibility which together further determine emotional distress.

Emotion regulation abilities as a predictor of anxiety, positive emotions, heart rate, and alpha asymmetry during an impromptu speech task

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Recent approaches suggest that emotion regulation (ER) abilities represent potential predictors of emotional response among youths navigating stressful situations. To test this, we investigated whether ER abilities predicted the subjective and physiological emotional response experienced by youths during a stressful situation.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional design was employed.

METHOD

One hundred and thirty-four youths completed measures of ER abilities (emotional awareness, anxiety sensitivity, emotional control) and were asked to deliver a speech while their anxiety, positive emotions, heart rate, and alpha asymmetry were collected at four time points: baseline, anticipation, speech, and post-recovery.

RESULTS

Pearson r correlations showed that poor emotional control and awareness, as well as high anxiety sensitivity were related to greater anxiety and lower positive emotions experienced during the speech. Hierarchical multiple regressions also revealed that emotional control and emotional awareness predicted greater speech anxiety and lower positive emotions. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity was related to and predicted an increased heart rate experienced during speech.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that difficulties in emotional awareness, anxiety sensitivity, and emotional control predict the emotional response experienced by youths during a stressful situation. Interventions delivered by clinicians/teachers that target ER difficulties may be effective in improving emotional functioning when navigating stressful situations.