Physiological Measures of Affective Chronometry during Habitual and Voluntary Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Menchola, Marisa Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 28/09/2021 22:50:37 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/194046 1 PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASURES OF AFFECTIVE CHRONOMETRY DURING HABITUAL AND VOLUNTARY USE OF EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES by MARISA MENCHOLA ______________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2007 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Marisa Menchola entitled Physiological Measures of Affective Chronometry during Habitual and Voluntary Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy th _______________________________________________________________________ Date: September 27 , 2007 Alfred W. Kaszniak th _______________________________________________________________________ Date: September 27 , 2007 John J.B. Allen th _______________________________________________________________________ Date: September 27 , 2007 Hal Arkowitz th _______________________________________________________________________ Date: September 27 , 2007 David A. Sbarra Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. ________________________________________________ Date: September 27 th , 2007 Dissertation Director: Alfred W. Kaszniak 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Marisa Menchola 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete my graduate studies without the guidance and support I received from many people along the way. I wish to thank Al Kaszniak for his generous and kind mentorship, and for giving me the tools, the encouragement and the confidence to make it this far. I am also especially grateful to Anne Herring and Catherine Shisslak, superb clinical supervisors, caring mentors, and dear friends. I wish to thank Hal Arkowitz, John Allen and Dave Sbarra, as well as Dick Bootzin and Varda Shoham, for their valuable input at different stages in this project. Finally, this would not have been possible without the unconditional support from my family and friends. I am very lucky to have you. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES...............................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................9 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................10 Physiological measures of affective chronometry in emotion regulation.................14 The present study ......................................................................................................19 METHODS ........................................................................................................................21 Sample.......................................................................................................................21 Measures and Stimuli................................................................................................21 Procedures.................................................................................................................25 Physiological data reduction.....................................................................................27 RESULTS ..........................................................................................................................30 Self-reports of valence ..............................................................................................32 Self-reports of arousal...............................................................................................33 Startle reflex modulation and chronometry ..............................................................34 Corrugator EMG magnitude and chronometry.........................................................35 Skin conductance level, responses, and chronometry...............................................37 DISCUSSION....................................................................................................................39 Limitations and future directions..............................................................................43 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS, Continued APPENDIX A: NORMATIVE VALENCE AND AROUSAL RATINGS FOR IAPS IMAGES USED.................................................................................................................45 APPENDIX B: SCRIPTS FOR EACH INSTRUCTION CONDITION...........................50 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................53 7 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1, Sample characteristics......................................................................................22 TABLE 2, Valence and arousal ratings for IAPS images used .........................................23 TABLE 3, Means and standard deviations for all variables by image type ......................30 TABLE 4, Means and standard deviations for all variables by instruction condition.......31 TABLE 5, Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals for all comparisons by instruction condition ............................................................................................................................32 8 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1, Self-assessment manikin ................................................................................24 FIGURE 2, Startle reflex magnitude for negative images by probe time..........................35 FIGURE 3, Mean corrugator EMG activity by second of negative image presentation ...36 FIGURE 4, Mean skin conductance level by half-second of negative image presentation ............................................................................................................................................37 9 ABSTRACT Emotions are currently conceptualized as ongoing temporal processes. Consistent with this view, an important target of attempts at emotion regulation are the temporal characteristics of an emotional response. The process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998a) distinguishes between antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation strategies, depending on when during the unfolding emotional response they act. Two strategies that exemplify this distinction are cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. The present study explored the effects of the interaction between habitual engagement in reappraisal and suppression and their voluntary manipulation. Using a between-subjects design, 122 participants selected based on their self-reported habitual emotion regulation strategy (reappraisal, suppression, or both strategies without clear preference for one over the other) received instructions to engage in reappraisal, suppression, or merely watch emotion-eliciting images. Chronometric analyses of emotion-related psychophysiological measures (startle reflex modulation, corrugator electromyography, and skin conductance) were performed in order to further characterize the differences in the time course of these two strategies during the down-regulation of negative emotion. As expected, instructions to reappraise resulted in lower unpleasantness and arousal ratings, as well as less overall corrugator electromyographic activity, compared to instructions to suppress. No differences between instruction conditions were observed on startle reflex or skin conductance. Moreover, no differences were observed in the chronometry of any of the physiological measures. Habitual emotion regulation style had no direct effect on any of the dependent variables, and it did not interact with instruction condition. The implications for the study of the chronometry