Convergence in feeling, divergence in physiology: How culture influences the consequences of disgust suppression and amplification among European Americans and Asian Americans

The impact of culture on emotion suppression: Insights from an electrophysiological study of emotion regulation in Japan

Prior theory and evidence suggest that native East Asians tend to down-regulate their emotional arousal to negatively valenced experiences through expressive suppression, an emotion regulation technique focused on suppressing one's emotional experience. One proposed explanation for this choice of regulation strategy and its efficacy is rooted in their commitment to the cultural value of interdependence with others. However, prior work has not yet thoroughly supported this hypothesis using in vivo neural correlates of emotion regulation. Here, we utilized an established electroencephalogram (EEG) correlate of emotional arousal, the late positive potential (LPP), to examine whether down-regulation of the LPP in native East Asians might be particularly pronounced for those relatively high in interdependent self-construal. In this study, native Japanese participants attempted to suppress their emotional reaction to unpleasant images during EEG recording. In support of the hypothesis that emotion suppression among native East Asians is influenced by the cultural value of interdependence, there was a significant effect of interdependent self-construal on the LPP. Specifically, those relatively high in interdependent (versus independent) self-construal exhibited a smaller LPP in response to unpleasant pictures when instructed to suppress their emotions versus a passive viewing condition. However, this effect was negligible for those relatively low in interdependent self-construal, suggesting that cultural values impact the in vivo efficacy of different emotion regulation techniques. These results demonstrate the importance of identifying correspondence between self-report measures and in vivo correlates of emotion regulation in cross-cultural research.

Autonomic reactivity during acute social stress: exploratory investigation of an interaction by threat interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties

Objective: This preliminary study examined the interactive influences of interpretation bias and emotion dysregulation in predicting autonomic stress response.Methods: Participants (N = 72 college students; ages 18-25, 70% female, 47% Hispanic/Latinx), completed a performance-based assessment of threat interpretation bias and self-report measures of emotion regulation difficulties. Electrodermal activity (EDA; skin conductance level) was collected while participants completed a standardized psychosocial stressor task.Results: Interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties interacted to predict EDA trajectories (β = 0.054, SE = .001, CI:.007, .002, p < .001) during acute stress: presence of either interpretation bias toward threat (β = 6.950, SE = 2.826, CI: 1.407, 12.488, p = .013) or emotion regulation difficulties (β = 9.387, SE = 3.685, CI: 2.141, 16.636, p = .011) was associated with greater reactivity and poorer recovery; presence of both was associated with the lowest resting state EDA and blunted reactivity (β = 1.340, SE = 3.085, CI: -4.721, 7.407, p = .66).Conclusions: Preliminary findings support interpretation bias and emotion regulation difficulties, and their distinct interactive patterns, as predictors of autonomic reactivity trajectories during stress. Interpretation bias modification and emotion regulation skills may be important intervention targets for common psychological conditions that are influenced by aberrant psychophysiological processes.

Racial/ethnic differences in adolescents' non-response to suicide attempt: Findings from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2015-2019

Racial/ethnic minority adolescents are at greater risk of attempting suicide compared to their White counterparts. Yet, racial/ethnic minority adolescents are more likely to not respond to questions on suicidal behaviors. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between race/ethnicity and missing response to suicide attempt among adolescents in the United States. Data for this study were obtained the 2015-2019 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (n = 40,360). The outcome variable investigated in this study was missing response to suicide attempt and the main explanatory variable was race/ethnicity. Two hierarchical binary logistic regression models were fitted to examine the association between race/ethnicity and missing response to suicide attempt. Of the 40,036 adolescents, 13.4% had missing response to suicide attempt. Controlling for the effects of demographic factors and symptoms of depression, adolescents who self-identified as non-Hispanic Black had more than threefold higher odds of having missing response to suicide attempt when compared to their non-Hispanic White counterparts (AOR = 3.62, p < .001, 95% CI = 2.45-5.34). Adolescent males and adolescents questioning their sexual identity had higher odds of having missing response to suicide attempt. Adolescents with depressive symptoms had lower odds of having missing response to suicide attempt. Missing response to suicide attempt among adolescents continues to differ by race/ethnicity and other demographic factors. The use of a single item in assessing suicide attempt history may be inadequate in capturing national estimates of adolescent suicide metrics.

The neural bases of expressive suppression: A systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies

Expressive suppression refers to the inhibition of emotion-expressive behavior (e.g., facial expressions of emotion). Although it is a commonly used emotion regulation strategy with well-documented consequences for well-being, little is known about its underlying mechanisms. In this systematic review, we for the first time synthesize functional neuroimaging studies on the neural bases of expressive suppression in non-clinical populations. The 12 studies included in this review contrasted the use of expressive suppression to simply watching emotional stimuli. Results showed that expressive suppression consistently increased activation of frontoparietal regions, especially the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices and inferior parietal cortex, but decreased activation in temporo-occipital areas. Results regarding the involvement of the insula and amygdala were inconsistent with studies showing increased, decreased, or no changes in activation. These mixed findings underscore the importance of distinguishing expressive suppression from other forms of suppression and highlight the need to pay more attention to experimental design and neuroimaging data analysis procedures. We discuss these conceptual and methodological issues and provide suggestions for future research.

Comparing Explicit and Implicit Measures for Assessing Cross-Cultural Food Experience

The present study investigated the potential of implicit physiological measures to provide objective measures of affective food experience in contrast to explicit self-report ratings in a cross-cultural context. Dutch and Thai participants viewed 120 food images portraying universal food image categories (regular and molded food) and cultural food image categories (typically Dutch and Thai food). The universal food images were taken as ground truth high and low valence stimuli, where we assumed no genuine difference in affective experience between nationalities. In contrast, for the cultural food images, we did expect a genuine difference between nationalities. Participants were asked to rate valence, arousal and liking of each food image. In addition, heart rate (HR) and phasic electrodermal activity (EDA) responses to the images were recorded. Typically Asian and Western response biases were found for explicit ratings of regular and molded food with an extreme response style for Dutch, and a middle response style for Thai participants. However, such bias was not observed in HR. For cultural food image categories, HR showed the hypothesized interaction between participant nationality and food image category, reflecting the expected genuine difference between nationalities in affective food experience. Besides presenting participants with images, we also asked participants to taste typically Thai and Dutch drinks. Similar to images, a significant interaction between participant nationality and cultural food category was found for HR. An interaction was also found for sip size, while this was not seen in explicit measures. We attribute this to differences in the moment that these measures were taken. In this study, phasic EDA did not appear to be a sensitive measure of affective food experience, possibly since stimuli mostly differed in valence rather than arousal. To conclude, our study constitutes an example where cultural bias negatively affected the accuracy of self-reports, and only the implicit physiological measures followed the prior expectations of genuine food experience, indicating the potential of these measures to study cross-cultural food experience.

Cultural Values Influence Relations Between Parent Emotion Socialization and Adolescents' Neural Responses to Peer Rejection

Adolescents' responses to negative social experiences can be influenced by parenting behaviors. This includes how parents react to their child's expression of emotions, an aspect of parenting referred to as emotion socialization. Emotion socialization may intersect with cultural values, particularly collectivism, a socially-relevant attitude that emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships. Examination of a neural measure called the feedback-related negativity (FRN), thought to reflect the degree to which feedback is experienced as aversive, could help elucidate neural contributions to and consequences of the role of collectivism in such family dynamics. Thus, this study examined whether adolescents' endorsement of collectivism moderated the association of parents' dismissive emotion socialization responses (called override responses) and FRN following peer rejection. A community sample of 83 Latinx (n = 32), Asian American (n = 20), and non-Latinx White (n = 31) adolescents ages 13-17 completed a computerized peer feedback task while continuous electroencephalogram was recorded. Their parents completed a battery of self-report questionnaires. Regression analyses demonstrated that adolescents' endorsement of collectivism moderated the association of override responses and FRN following peer rejection, such that FRN was enhanced as override responses increased for adolescents endorsing low and moderate levels of collectivism. Results suggest that there is cultural variation in the association of the emotion socialization strategy of override and adolescents' neural responses to socially-salient events. Findings have implications for parenting interventions designed to enhance adolescents' emotion regulation abilities.

Subjective Experience of Disgust

Abstract. Background: Individual differences in the experience of disgust are known to influence the development and maintenance of several psychopathologies. Aims: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale – Revised (DPSS-R). Method: The factor validity, the reliability of the Portuguese version of DPSS-R, the convergent validity, and the relationship with other scales were assessed in 229 participants. Results: The modified two-factor model, disgust propensity and sensitivity, was confirmed with good fit indexes and with acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. Overall, the internal consistency and the composite reliability of the DPSS-R were appropriate. The DPSS-R also revealed significant associations with the Disgust Scale, Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory, Spider Phobia Questionnaire – Revised, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Specifically, the disgust propensity factor was found to be a significant predictor of fear of spiders and trait anxiety, whereas both DPSS-R factors predicted obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Finally, women reported higher levels of disgust propensity and sensitivity than men. Conclusion: The Portuguese version of the DPSS-R proved to be a valid and reliable measure of disgust propensity and sensitivity and, therefore, with potential relevance for application in both research and clinical practice.

Chilean's Self-Perception of Their Self-Regulatory Behaviors and Vocal Symptoms

OBJECTIVE

To compare vocal symptoms and self-regulatory behaviors between Chileans having behavioral dysphonia and those who were vocally healthy; and to correlate their vocal symptoms and self-regulatory behaviors.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The 100 Chileans who participated in this study were divided into the dysphonic group (DG) having behavioral dysphonia and the vocally healthy group (VHG). The DG and VHG each had 50 participants (32 females and 18 males), whose mean ages were 28.3 and 28.6 years, respectively. The participants responded to the Chilean Spanish versions of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ-Ch) and Voice Symptom Scale (VoiSS) instruments. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULTS

The VHG Chileans had significantly lower scores in the VoiSS domains and significantly higher scores in the total and impulse control domains of SSRQ-Ch as compared to the DG Chileans. There was a negative correlation between all VoiSS domains as well as the total and impulse control domains of SSRQ-Ch.

CONCLUSION

The DG Chileans had more vocal symptoms and less self-regulation of general behavior and impulse control than the VHG Chileans. There was an inverse relationship between the frequency of vocal symptoms and the self-regulated general and impulse control behaviors.

Psychophysiological Effects of Downregulating Negative Emotions: Insights From a Meta-Analysis of Healthy Adults

Assessing psychophysiological responses of emotion regulation is a cost-efficient way to quantify emotion regulation and to complement subjective report that may be biased. Previous studies have revealed inconsistent results complicating a sound interpretation of these findings. In the present study, we summarized the existing literature through a systematic search of articles. Meta-analyses were used to evaluate effect sizes of instructed downregulation strategies on common autonomic (electrodermal, respiratory, cardiovascular, and pupillometric) and electromyographic (corrugator activity, emotion-modulated startle) measures. Moderator analyses were conducted, with moderators including study design, emotion induction, control instruction and trial duration. We identified k = 78 studies each contributing multiple sub-samples and performed 23 meta-analyses for combinations of emotion regulation strategy and psychophysiological measure. Overall, results showed that effects of reappraisal and suppression on autonomic measures were highly inconsistent across studies with rather small mean effect sizes. Electromyography (startle and corrugator activity) showed medium effect sizes that were consistent across studies. Our findings highlight the diversity as well as the low level of standardization and comparability of research in this area. Significant moderation of effects by study design, trial duration, and control condition emphasizes the need for better standardization of methods. In addition, the small mean effect sizes resulting from our analyses on autonomic measures should be interpreted with caution. Findings corroborate the importance of multi-channel approaches.

Cultural Differences in Perceptual Strategies Underlying Emotion Regulation

Cultural norms for the experience, expression, and regulation of emotion vary widely between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Collectivistic cultures value conformity, social harmony, and social status hierarchies, which demand sensitivity and focus to broader social contexts, such that attention is directed to contextual emotion information to effectively function within constrained social roles and suppress incongruent personal emotions. By contrast, individualistic cultures valuing autonomy and personal aspirations are more likely to attend to central emotion information and to reappraise emotions to avoid negative emotional experience. Here we examined how culture affects perceptual strategies employed during emotion regulation, particularly during cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression. Eye movements were measured while healthy young adult participants viewed negative International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images and regulated emotions by using either strategies of reappraisal (19 Asian American, 21 Caucasian American) or suppression (21 Asian American, 23 Caucasian American). After image viewing, participants rated how negative they felt as a measure of subjective emotional experience. Consistent with prior studies, reappraisers made lower negative valence ratings after regulating emotions than suppressers across both Asian American and Caucasian American groups. Although no cultural variation was observed in subjective emotional experience during emotion regulation, we found evidence of cultural variation in perceptual strategies used during emotion regulation. During middle and late time periods of emotional suppression, Asian American participants made significantly fewer fixations to emotionally salient areas than Caucasian American participants. These results indicate cultural variation in perceptual differences underlying emotional suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal.

Longitudinal Relations between Emotion Restraint Values, Life Stress, and Internalizing Symptoms among Vietnamese American and European American Adolescents

Objective: Recent research has documented cultural differences in the extent and manner in which various forms of emotion regulation are linked with psychological well-being. Most of these studies, however, have been cross-sectional, nor have they directly examined the values underlying the use of emotion regulation. The present study examined emotion restraint values and their interactions with life stress in predicting internalizing symptoms across time among Vietnamese American and European American adolescents. The study focused on adolescence as a critical developmental period during which life stress and internalizing symptoms increase significantly. Method: Vietnamese American (n = 372) and European American (n = 304) adolescents' levels of emotion restraint values, internalizing symptoms, and stress were assessed at two timepoints six months apart. Results: Results indicated differential associations between emotion restraint values, stress, and symptoms over time for the two groups. For Vietnamese American adolescents, emotion restraint values did not predict depressive, anxiety, or somatic symptoms. For European American adolescents, emotion restraint values predicted higher somatic symptoms but buffered against the effects of interpersonal stress on anxiety and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: These results provide increased understanding of the role of values related to emotion restraint in shaping adolescent internalizing symptoms and responses to stress across cultural groups. Implications of the findings for guiding intervention efforts are discussed.

Disgust assessment: Factorial structure and psychometric properties of the French version of the Disgust Propension and Sensibility Scale Revised-12

The present study examined the internal and external validity of the French version of the 12-item Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (DPSS-12) in a nonclinical sample from the general population. Two hundred and eighty-two participants completed the DPSSf-12 questionnaire as well as the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI), Anxiety Trait (STAI B), Obsessional Belief Questionnaire 44 items (OBQ 44), Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported a 2-factor structure after two sensitivity items were removed. The 10-item scale showed good internal consistency, construct validity and test-retest reliability. These adequate psychometric properties make the DPSSf-10 appropriate for use by researchers and practitioners.

Culture Moderates the Relationship Between Emotional Fit and Collective Aspects of Well-Being

The present study examined how emotional fit with culture - the degree of similarity between an individual' emotional response to the emotional response of others from the same culture - relates to well-being in a sample of Asian American and European American college students. Using a profile correlation method, we calculated three types of emotional fit based on self-reported emotions, facial expressions, and physiological responses. We then examined the relationships between emotional fit and individual well-being (depression, life satisfaction) as well as collective aspects of well-being, namely collective self-esteem (one's evaluation of one's cultural group) and identification with one's group. The results revealed that self-report emotional fit was associated with greater individual well-being across cultures. In contrast, culture moderated the relationship between self-report emotional fit and collective self-esteem, such that emotional fit predicted greater collective self-esteem in Asian Americans, but not in European Americans. Behavioral emotional fit was unrelated to well-being. There was a marginally significant cultural moderation in the relationship between physiological emotional fit in a strong emotional situation and group identification. Specifically, physiological emotional fit predicted greater group identification in Asian Americans, but not in European Americans. However, this finding disappeared after a Bonferroni correction. The current finding extends previous research by showing that, while emotional fit may be closely related to individual aspects of well-being across cultures, the influence of emotional fit on collective aspects of well-being may be unique to cultures that emphasize interdependence and social harmony, and thus being in alignment with other members of the group.

Validating the Italian Version of the Disgust and Propensity Scale-Revised

The aim of this work is to evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (DPSS-R, 16 items) in two samples taken from the general population. In the first study, 285 participants completed the DPSS-R questionnaire through a web-based survey. Exploratory factor analysis for ordinal Likert-type data supported the existence of four underlying factors, reflecting self-focused disgust, disgust propensity, somatic anxiety and disgust sensitivity. In the second study, an independent sample of 293 participants was enrolled as a test set to validate the factor structure obtained in the exploratory phase. The factor solution was confirmed, but showed quite highly correlated latent factors. We fitted the model and tested whether or not the bifactor structure was better than the previous one (four correlated factors). Actually, we had evidence supporting the presence of a general factor, providing a measure of disgust susceptibility, along with the four specific factors previously defined. This result could be useful also from the clinical perspective since the DPSS-R questionnaire will be used in clinical context, where underlying factors may be related to different and specific psychopathological profiles. Finally, we examined and visualized the interrelationships among the four DPSS-R factors and the external scales (Anxiety Sensitivity, Disgust Scale and Padua) using a graphical model approach.

Using a cultural and RDoC framework to conceptualize anxiety in Asian Americans

Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States; however, mental health within this population segment, particularly anxiety disorders, remains significantly understudied. Both the heterogeneity within the Asian American population and the multidimensional nature of anxiety contribute to difficulties in understanding anxiety in this population. The present paper reviewed two sources of heterogeneity within anxiety in Asian Americans: (1) cultural variables and (2) mechanisms or components of anxiety. Specifically, we examined four cultural variables most commonly found in research related to anxiety in Asian Americans: acculturation, loss of face, affect valuation, and individualism-collectivism. We also discussed ways to parse anxiety through a Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, specifically focusing on sensitivity to acute and potential threat, constructs within the Negative Valence System. Previously unpublished preliminary data were presented to illustrate one way of examining ethnic differences in anxiety using an RDoC framework. Finally, this paper offered recommendations for future work in this area.

Diversity and representation: Key issues for psychophysiological science

This Special Issue is devoted to the illustration and discussion of three key demographic variables (sex/gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status) that have been shown to moderate associations between psychophysiological processes and behavior. The introduction to the issue discusses the role of phenotypic plasticity in the emergence of different neural processes that achieve the same behavioral outcome, with emphasis on how these relatively stable developmental contexts affect brain/behavior associations without necessarily resulting in difference in behavior. These findings have profound significance for the implications of generalization and call into question the presumption that diverse samples produce an average result that is appropriately reflective of the individuals themselves. Increasing diversity within psychophysiological research is critical in elucidating mechanisms by which the human brain can accomplish cognitive and affective behaviors. This article further examines the logistical and ethical challenges faced in achieving this goal.