Goal-directed Attentional Deployment to Emotional Faces and Individual Differences in Emotional Regulation
Gladys Leon
Florida International University
Goal-directed Attentional Deployment to Emotional Faces and Individual Differences in Emotional Regulation
Summary
Johnson (2009) conducted a study to test the hypothesis that an effective method for regulating emotion is goal-directed attentional deployment. The sample was comprised of a total of one hundred and nine participants. All of the participants were undergraduate psychology students from the University of Oklahoma. These students chose to participate in this experiment for an alternative course credit. Forty-two students were males and the average age was nineteen years old. A combination of experimental and correlational
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This study also analyzed whether individual variances in this ability to adhere to goal-directed attentional deployment predicted more effective emotion regulation. One hundred and nine undergraduate students participated in the dot-probe task under pressure and were randomly chosen to either focus their attention towards the happy faces (which was an attentional goal) or no attentional goal. Participants who were selected to focus on the happy faces reported approximately three times less frustration in response to a stressful anagram task compared to those who were not told to focus on any of the faces in particular. The participants who were given the goal of focusing on the happy faces and were able to adhere to the goal had a longer endurance during the stressful anagram task. Trait anxiety was not a component that decreased these results. These conclusions have significant inferences for concepts of emotion regulation and anxiety-related attentional
Physiologically, happiness is activity of the mind, predominantly in the left prefrontal cortex, anterior cortex, and the amygdale. Recent studies made possible by scanning systems such as MRIs and Positron Emission Tomography show that when an individual experiences feelings of happiness, the activity in these areas of the brain increase proportionally. This empirical evidence concurs with Aristotle’s definition, wi...
The first section explores the “flat-brain theory of emotions, flat-brain syndrome, and flat-brain tango” (Petersen, 2007, pp. 2-45). All three are interrelated (Petersen, 2007). The flat-brain theory of emotions “demonstrates what’s occurring inside of us when things are going well, and how that changes when they are not” (Petersen, 2007, p. 11). Petersen’s (2007) theory “explains how our emotions, thinking, and relating abilities work and how what goes on inside us comes out in the ways we communicate and act” (p. 8). The “flat-brain syndrome” describes what happens when an individual wears their emotions on their sleeve. This “makes it
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97). What this implies is that our emotions energize our actions, which we direct toward achieving some goal. According to Adler (Ferguson), “ emotion helps to move the person toward his or her goals”. Additionally, “if there are maladaptive aspects it isn’t the emotion but the goals that are maladaptive” (pg.98).
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Throughout childhood and our adolescent years, we learn to control our emotions, eventually gaining an understanding of how and when it is appropriate to express or suppress those emotions. This technique is referred to as emotional regulation or effortful control and is considered a lifelong endeavor, with early childhood being a crucial time for development (Berger. 2014, p.210) According to Berger, by age 6 signs of emotional regulation are evident with most children being able to become upset or angry without emotional outburst or proud without being narcissistic (Gross,2014; Lewis,2013). Emotional control and delayed gratification are developed using motivation either intrinsic (the joy felt within after achieving something) or extrinsic (the gratification felt after receiving praise or acknowledgment from outside sources) (Berger. 2014, p.214). Unlike intrinsic motivation, because extrinsic motivation requires outside reinforcements to be achieved, once the extrinsic reward stops, so does the behavior; unless it becomes habitual due to intrinsic gratification (Berger,2014, p.214).
Leahy, R.L., Tirch, D.D. & Napolitano, L.A. (2012). Why is emotion regulation important? Psychotherapy in Australia, 19(1), 68-81.
Significant reaction times differences were found between high versus low mood groups’ (see Figure 1; left). As well, significant within-group compatibility effects (responses to items congruent or the same as, versus items incongruent or opposite to, the central target item). This task incorporated a spatial element (near vs. far), whereas our subsequent research, the Emotional Flanker-Gratton (EFG)5, investigated the effects of sequential mood-stimuli on emotional attention in high vs. low mood-groups (see figure 1, right). The EFG revealed significant congruency sequence effects (difference between incongruent and congruent trials is typically strongly reduced when the previous trial was incongruent compared to when congruent) and supported EF low/high group findings. Sequence effects are calculated via the subject’s reaction times, which correspond to electrical brain impulses; measureable by various biomedical equipment. When the brain up-regulates the amount of control (i.e., electrical activity) in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex, more intense attentional control is exerted – resulting in a faster response, after a slower (compatibility effect) response to stimuli. Interestingly, high mood-score groups show consistent differences to control groups during attention tasks when viewing emotion-related
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“Three of the most effective tools for managing strong emotions are asking questions, reframing, and paraphrasing” (Fitch, B. 2016
Rosen, L. D., Cheever, N. A., Cummings, C., & Felt, J. (2008). The impact of emotionality and
Emotion has a major role that it plays in the learning environment (Cleveland-Innes & Campbell, 2012). Educational psychologists believe the motivation, achievements, and the overall educational performance has a direct correlation to the human emotion (Cleveland-Innes & Campbell, 2012). That statement alone reflects the significant role that emotion plays in education. There is a major need for human emotion to be displayed in the educational environment and it really does not matter whether it is a brick and mortar class or an online learning environment; emotion must and in fact does play a role.
Park, C. L., Wright, B. E., Pais, J., & Ray, D. M. (2016). Daily Stress and Self-Control., 35, 738-753.