Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-08-02DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00204-2
Pilleriin Sikka, James J. Gross
{"title":"Affect Across the Wake-Sleep Cycle","authors":"Pilleriin Sikka, James J. Gross","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00204-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00204-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Affective scientists traditionally have focused on periods of active wakefulness when people are responding to external stimuli or engaging in specific tasks. However, we live much of our lives immersed in experiences not related to the current environment or tasks at hand—mind-wandering (or daydreaming) during wakefulness and dreaming during sleep. Despite being disconnected from the immediate environment, our brains still generate affect during such periods. Yet, research on stimulus-independent affect has remained largely separate from affective science. Here, we suggest that one key future direction for affective science will be to expand our field of view by integrating the wealth of findings from research on mind-wandering, sleep, and dreaming to provide a more comprehensive account of affect across the wake-sleep cycle. In developing our argument, we address two key issues: affect variation across the wake-sleep cycle, and the benefits of expanding the study of affect across the full wake-sleep cycle. In considering these issues, we highlight the methodological and clinical implications for affective science.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00204-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41162755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-08-02DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00199-w
Erik C. Nook
{"title":"The Promise of Affective Language for Identifying and Intervening on Psychopathology","authors":"Erik C. Nook","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00199-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00199-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We are in dire need of innovative tools for reducing the global burden of psychopathology. Emerging evidence suggests that analyzing language (i.e., the words people use) can grant insight into an individual's emotional experiences, their ability to regulate their emotions, and even their current experiences of psychopathology. As such, linguistic analyses of people’s everyday word use may be a diagnostic marker of emotional well-being, and manipulating the words people use could foster adaptive emotion regulation and mental health. Given the ubiquity of language in everyday life, such language-based tools for measuring and intervening in emotion and mental health can advance how we identify and treat mental illnesses at a large scale. In this paper, I outline the promise of this approach and identify key problems we must solve if we are to make it a reality. In particular, I summarize evidence connecting language, emotion, and mental health for three key constructs: sentiment (i.e., the valence of one’s language), linguistic distancing (i.e., using language to separate oneself from distressing stimuli), and emotion differentiation (i.e., using words to specifically identify one’s emotions). I also identify open questions in need of attention for each of these constructs and this area of research as a whole. Overall, I believe the future is bright for the application of psycholinguistic approaches to mental health detection and intervention.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00199-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41167623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-07-11DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00196-z
Roberta L. Irvin, Dongjie Wu, Adam K. Fetterman, Michael D. Robinson
{"title":"Heads of Worry, Hearts of Joy: Daily Diary Investigations of Self-Location and Well-Being","authors":"Roberta L. Irvin, Dongjie Wu, Adam K. Fetterman, Michael D. Robinson","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00196-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00196-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p>\u0000When people are asked to locate the self, they frequently choose the head and heart regions of the body. These bodily regions, in turn, are linked to an extensive set of metaphors, including those that conceptualize the heart as the locus of authenticity, love, and passion. Based on such considerations as well as frameworks within the self and well-being literatures, four samples of participants in three studies (total <i>N</i> = 527) were asked whether, on particular days, they perceived themselves to be located in their head regions of their bodies or their heart regions. When the self was perceived to be in the heart to a greater extent, participants reported higher levels of affective and eudaimonic well-being, as mediated by processes related to reward perception (Study 1), savoring (Study 2), and social activity (Study 3). In terms of daily experiences, the heart-located self is a happier self.</p>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130370715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5
Erika B. Langley, Daniel J. O’Leary, James J. Gross, Michelle N. Shiota
{"title":"Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation","authors":"Erika B. Langley, Daniel J. O’Leary, James J. Gross, Michelle N. Shiota","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Stressful experiences frequently lead to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, high in sugar and fat yet low in nutrients. Can emotion regulation help break this link? In a laboratory experiment (<i>N</i> = 200), participants were encouraged to ruminate on a current, distressing personal problem, followed by instruction to use a specific emotion regulation strategy for managing feelings around that problem (challenge appraisal, relaxation/distraction, imagined social support, no-instruction control). Participants then spent 15 min on an anagram task in which 80% of items were unsolvable—a frustrating situation offering a second, implicit opportunity to use the regulation strategy. During the anagram task they had free access to a snack basket containing various options. Analyses revealed significant differences among regulation conditions in consumption of candy versus healthy snack options; challenge appraisal led to the healthiest snack choices, imagined social support to the least healthy snack choices.\u0000</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126660342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00195-0
Marie P. Cross, Amanda M. Acevedo, John F. Hunter
{"title":"A Critique of Automated Approaches to Code Facial Expressions: What Do Researchers Need to Know?","authors":"Marie P. Cross, Amanda M. Acevedo, John F. Hunter","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00195-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00195-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Facial expression recognition software is becoming more commonly used by affective scientists to measure facial expressions. Although the use of this software has exciting implications, there are persistent and concerning issues regarding the validity and reliability of these programs. In this paper, we highlight three of these issues: biases of the programs against certain skin colors and genders; the common inability of these programs to capture facial expressions made in non-idealized conditions (e.g., “in the wild”); and programs being forced to adopt the underlying assumptions of the specific theory of emotion on which each software is based. We then discuss three directions for the future of affective science in the area of automated facial coding. First, researchers need to be cognizant of exactly how and on which data sets the machine learning algorithms underlying these programs are being trained. In addition, there are several ethical considerations, such as privacy and data storage, surrounding the use of facial expression recognition programs. Finally, researchers should consider collecting additional emotion data, such as body language, and combine these data with facial expression data in order to achieve a more comprehensive picture of complex human emotions. Facial expression recognition programs are an excellent method of collecting facial expression data, but affective scientists should ensure that they recognize the limitations and ethical implications of these programs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00195-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41155752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-07-10DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00197-y
Yi Yang Teoh, William A. Cunningham, Cendri A. Hutcherson
{"title":"Framing Subjective Emotion Reports as Dynamic Affective Decisions","authors":"Yi Yang Teoh, William A. Cunningham, Cendri A. Hutcherson","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00197-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00197-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Self-reports remain affective science’s only direct measure of subjective affective experiences. Yet, little research has sought to understand the psychological process that transforms subjective experience into self-reports. Here, we propose that by framing these self-reports as dynamic affective decisions, affective scientists may leverage the computational tools of decision-making research, sequential sampling models specifically, to better disentangle affective experience from the noisy decision processes that constitute self-report. We further outline how such an approach could help affective scientists better probe the specific mechanisms that underlie important moderators of affective experience (e.g., contextual differences, individual differences, and emotion regulation) and discuss how adopting this decision-making framework could generate insight into affective processes more broadly and facilitate reciprocal collaborations between affective and decision scientists towards a more comprehensive and integrative psychological science.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00197-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41158961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-06-19DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00194-1
Angela Gaia F. Abatista, Florian Cova
{"title":"Are Self-transcendent Emotions One Big Family? An Empirical Taxonomy of Positive Self-transcendent Emotion Labels","authors":"Angela Gaia F. Abatista, Florian Cova","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00194-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00194-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In the past decade, there has been a growing amount of research on so-called self-transcendent emotions, mainly in the domain of positive emotions. However, most candidate self-transcendent emotions (e.g., Awe, Gratitude, Being Moved, Wonder) have been studied in isolation, leaving the commonalities and the differences of their phenomenology unknown. In the present paper, we sought to identify the phenomenological nature of main families of self-transcendent emotions. We drew on two large datasets (<i>N</i><sub>1</sub> = 3,113; <i>N</i><sub>2</sub> = 1,443) in which participants had to recall an emotional episode or to watch emotional videos and had to report their emotions through a list of 40 emotion labels. Participants were also presented with a large list of items probing their cognitive appraisals, bodily feelings, and action tendencies. Using a principal component analysis, we identified three main dimensions of positive emotions: hedonic, social, and epistemic states. Candidate self-transcendent emotions were distributed across two dimensions, suggesting that at least two main different families of self-transcendent emotions should be distinguished. Our results also allowed us to identify self-reported cognitive appraisals, bodily feelings, and action tendencies characteristic of each family.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00194-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117222400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-06-12DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00193-2
Daniela Becker, Katharina Bernecker
{"title":"The Role of Hedonic Goal Pursuit in Self-Control and Self-Regulation: Is Pleasure the Problem or Part of the Solution?","authors":"Daniela Becker, Katharina Bernecker","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00193-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00193-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper examines the role of hedonic goal pursuit in self-control and self-regulation. We argue that not all pursuit of immediate pleasure is problematic and that successful hedonic goal pursuit can be beneficial for long-term goal pursuit and for achieving positive self-regulatory outcomes, such as health and well-being. The following two key questions for future research are discussed: How can people’s positive affective experiences during hedonic goal pursuit be enhanced, and how exactly do those affective experiences contribute to self-regulatory outcomes? We also call for an intercultural perspective linking hedonic goal pursuit to self-regulatory outcomes at different levels. We suggest that understanding the cognitive, motivational, and affective mechanisms at play can help individuals reap the benefits of successful hedonic goal pursuit. Considering those potential benefits, hedonic goal pursuit should be studied more systematically. To achieve this, we argue for a stronger integration of affective science and self-control research.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00193-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41174868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-06-09DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00192-3
Rista C. Plate, Kristina Woodard, Seth D. Pollak
{"title":"Category Flexibility in Emotion Learning","authors":"Rista C. Plate, Kristina Woodard, Seth D. Pollak","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00192-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00192-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Learners flexibly update category boundaries to adjust to the range of experiences they encounter. However, little is known about whether the degree of flexibility is consistent across domains. We examined whether categorization of social input, specifically emotions, is afforded more flexibility as compared to other biological input. To address this question, children (6–12 years; 32 female, 37 male; 7 Hispanic or Latino, 62 not Hispanic or Latino; 8 Black or African American, 14 multiracial, 46 White, 1 selected “other”) categorized faces morphed from calm to upset and animals morphed from a horse to a cow across task phases that differed in the distribution of stimuli presented. Learners flexibly adjusted both emotion and animal category boundaries according to distributional information, yet children showed more flexibility when updating their category boundaries for emotions. These results provide support for the idea that children—who must adjust to the vast and varied emotional signals of their social partners—respond to social signals dynamically in order to make predictions about the internal states and future behaviors of others.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129749252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Affective sciencePub Date : 2023-05-27DOI: 10.1007/s42761-023-00189-y
Adrienne S. Bonar, Jennifer K. MacCormack, Mallory J. Feldman, Kristen A. Lindquist
{"title":"Examining the Role of Emotion Differentiation on Emotion and Cardiovascular Physiological Activity During Acute Stress","authors":"Adrienne S. Bonar, Jennifer K. MacCormack, Mallory J. Feldman, Kristen A. Lindquist","doi":"10.1007/s42761-023-00189-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s42761-023-00189-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Emotion differentiation (ED) — the tendency to experience one’s emotions with specificity — is a well-established predictor of adaptive responses to daily life stress. Yet, there is little research testing the role of ED in self-reported and physiological responses to an acute stressor. In the current study, we investigate the effects of negative emotion differentiation (NED) and positive emotion differentiation (PED) on participants’ self-reported emotions and cardiac-mediated sympathetic nervous system reactivity (i.e., pre-ejection period) in response to a stressful task. Healthy young adults enrolled in a two-session study. At an initial session, participants completed a modified experience sampling procedure (i.e., the Day Reconstruction Method). At session 2, 195 completed the Trier Social Stress Test while cardiac impedance was acquired throughout. Linear regressions demonstrated that higher NED, but not PED, was associated with experiencing less intense self-reported negative, high arousal emotions (e.g., irritated, panicky) during the stressor (<i>β</i> = − .15, <i>p</i> < .05) although people with higher NED also exhibited greater sympathetic reactivity (<i>β</i> = .16, <i>p</i> < .05). In exploratory analyses, we tested whether the effect of NED on self-reported stress was mediated by the tendency to make internally focus (or self-focused) attributions about performance on the task but did not find a significant indirect effect (<i>p</i> = .085). These results both complement prior work and provide a more complex picture of the role of NED in adaptive responses to stressful life events, suggesting that people with higher NED may experience their emotions as more manageable regardless of their level of physiological arousal.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":72119,"journal":{"name":"Affective science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s42761-023-00189-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9619528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}