Abstract
Detachment (self-focused) and positive reinterpretation (situation-focused) are two important forms of cognitive reappraisal during emotion regulation. Previous research shows situation-focused reappraisal to be more effective than self-focused reappraisal for intentional emotion regulation. How the two differ in emotional consequences as components of automatic emotion regulation is however unclear. In the current study, event-related potentials were recorded to clarify this problem, while participants passively viewed disgusting or neutral scenes or formed implementation intentions based on self-focused or situation-focused reappraisal. Behavioural results showed fewer negative emotions during self-focused reappraisal than during either situation-focused reappraisal or free viewing (which had similar emotion ratings). In addition, self-reported cognitive cost was not enhanced during the two forms of reappraisal compared to passive viewing. Late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes for disgusting stimuli were larger than those elicited for neutral stimuli, at both frontal and posterior-parietal regions. This amplitude enhancement effect, irrespective of whether frontal or parietal LPP were involved, was found to be weaker during self-focused reappraisal than when participants were engaged in situation-focused reappraisal or passive viewing. The latter two conditions showed similar amplitude enhancement. These findings suggest that automatic self-focused reappraisal by implementation intention produces more favourable emotion regulation than situation-focused reappraisal, without enhancing cognitive cost.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ayduk O, Kross E (2008) Enhancing the pace of recovery: self distanced analysis of negative experiences reduces blood pressure reactivity. Psychol Sci 19:229–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02073.x
Bernat EM, Cadwallader M, Seo D, Vizueta N, Patrick CJ (2011) Effects of instructed emotion regulation on valence, arousal, and attentional measures of affective processing. Dev Neuropsychol 36(4):493–518
Buhle JT, Silvers JA, Wager TD, Lopez R, Onyemekwu C, Kober H et al (2014) Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: a meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. Cereb Cortex 24(11):2981
Butler EA, Egloff B, Wilhelm FH, Smith NC, Erickson EA, Gross JJ (2003) The social consequences of expressive suppression. Emotion 3(1):48–67
Cuthbert BN, Schupp HT, Bradley MM, Birbaumer N, Lang PJ (2000) Brain potentials in affective picture processing: covariation with autonomic arousal and affective report. Biol Psychol 52:95–111
Davis JI, Gross JJ, Ochsner KN (2011) Psychological distance and emotional experience: what you see is what you get. Emotion 11:438–444. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021783
Dijksterhuis A, Bos MW, Nordgren LF, Van Baaren RB (2006) On making the right choice: the deliberation without-attention effect. Science 311:1005–1007
Dörfel D, Lamke JP, Hummel F, Wagner U, Erk S, Walter H (2014) Common and differential neural networks of emotion regulation by detachment, reinterpretation, distraction, and expressive suppression: a comparative fMRI investigation. NeuroImage 101:298–309
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A (2007) G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Meth 39(2):175–191
Gailliot MT, Baumeister RF, DeWall CN, Maner JK, Plant EA, Tice DM, Schmeichel BJ (2007) Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor. J Pers Soc Psychol 92(2):325
Gallo IS, Keil A, Mc Culloch KC, Rockstroh B, Gollwitzer PM (2006) Strategic automation of emotion control. J Person Soc Psychol 96:11
Gallo IS, Keil A, McCulloch KC, Rockstroh B, Gollwitzer PM (2009) Strategic automation of emotion regulation. J Pers Soc Psychol 96(1):11–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013460
Gallo IS, McCulloch KC, Gollwitzer PM (2012) Differential effects of various types of implementation intentions on the regulation of disgust. Soc Cogn 30(1):1
Goldin PR, McRae K, Ramel W, Gross JJ (2008) The neural bases of emotion regulation: reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion. Biol Psychiat 63(6):577–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031
Gollwitzer PM (1993) Goal achievement: the role of intentions. Eur Rev Soc Psychol 4(1):141–185
Gollwitzer PM (1999) Implementation intentions: strong effects of simple plans. Am Psychol 54(7):493
Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P (2006) Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Adv Exp Soc Psychol 38:69–119
Gross JJ (1998) Antecedent-and response-focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. J Pers Soc Psychol 74(1):224
Gross JJ (2002) Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology 39:281–291. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048577201393198
Gross JJ (2014) Emotion regulation: conceptual and empirical foundation. In: Gross JJ (ed) Handbook of emotion regulation, 2nd edn, Guilford Press: New York, pp 3–20
Hajcak G, Nieuwenhuis S (2006) Reappraisal modulates the electrocortical response to unpleasant pictures. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 6:291–297
Hajcak G, Macnamara A, Olvet DM (2010) Event-related potentials, emotion, and emotion regulation: an integrative review. Dev Neuropsychol 35(2):129
Hajcak G, Dunning JP, Foti D, Weinberg A (2014) Temporal dynamics of emotion regulation. In: Gross JJ (ed) Handbook of emotion regulation, 2nd edn. Guilford Press, New York, pp 441–474
Huang YX, Luo YJ (2004) Native assessment of international affective picture system. Chin Mental Health J 9:631–634
Kok A (2001) On the utility of p3 amplitude as a measure of processing capacity. Psychophysiology 38(3):557
Lang PJ, Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN (1999) International affective picture system (IAPS): technical manual and affective ratings. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida
Liberman N, Sagristano MD, Trope Y (2002) The effect of temporal distance on level of mental construal. J Exp Soc Psychol 38:523–534. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1031(02)00535-8
Luck SJ (2005) An introduction to the event-related potential technique. MIT press, Cambridge
Macleod AK, Conway C (2007) Well-being and positive future thinking for the self versus others. Cogn Emot 21(5):1114–1124
Mauss IB, Bunge SA, Gross JJ (2007) Automatic emotion regulation. Soc Pers Psychol Compass 1(1):146–167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00005.x
Mayer JD, Salovey P (1995) Emotional intelligence and the construction and regulation of feelings. Appl Prev Psychol 4(3):197–208
Moser JS, Hartwig R, Moran TP, Jendrusina AA, Kross E (2014) Neural markers of positive reappraisal and their associations with trait reappraisal and worry. J Abnorm Psychol 123:91–105
Muraven M, Tice DM, Baumeister RF (1998) Self-control as a limited resource: regulatory depletion patterns. J Personal Soc Psychol 74(3):774. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00298.x
Ochsner KN, Bunge SA, Gross JJ, Gabrieli JD (2002) Rethinking feelings: an FMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. J Cogn Neurosci 14(8):1215–1229
Ochsner KN, Ray RD, Cooper JC, Robertson ER, Chopra S, Gabrieli JD, Gross JJ (2004) For better or for worse: neural systems supporting the cognitive down- and up-regulation of negative emotion. NeuroImage 23:483–499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.06.030
Paul S, Simon D, Kniesche R, Kathmann N, Endrass T (2013) Timing effects of antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation strategies. Biol Psychol 94:136–142
Posner MI, Snyder CRR (1975) Attention and cognitive control. In: Solso RL (ed) Information processing and cognition. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
Richards JM, Gross JJ (1999) Composure at any cost? The cognitive consequences of emotion suppression. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 25(8):1033–1044
Richards JM, Gross JJ (2000) Emotion regulation and memory: the cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. J Pers Soc Psychol 79(3):410
Saito M, Ishida T (2002) Cognitive resource model for the information-processing of task-irrelevant visual stimuli. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 56(2):145–151
Schönfelder S, Kanske P, Heissler J, Wessa M (2014) Time course of emotion-related responding during distraction and reappraisal. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 9:1310–1319
Shafir R, Schwartz N, Blechert J, Sheppes G (2015) Emotional intensity influences pre-implementation and implementation of distraction and reappraisal. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 10:1329–1337
Shiffrin RM, Schneider W (1977) Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. Psychol Rev 84(2):127–190
Shiota MN, Levenson RW (2009) Effects of aging on experimentally instructed detached reappraisal, positive reappraisal, and emotional behavior suppression. Psychol Aging 24(4):890–900
Shiota MN, Levenson RW (2012) Turn down the volume or change the channel? Emotional effects of detached versus positive reappraisal. J Pers Soc Psychol 103(3):416–429. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029208
Tamir M, Mauss I (2011) Social cognitive factors in emotion regulation: implications for well-being. In: Nyklíček I, Vingerhoets A, Zeelenberg M (eds) Emotion regulation and well-being. Springer, New York, pp 31–47
Thiruchselvam R, Blechert J, Sheppes G, Rydstrom A, Gross JJ (2011) The temporal dynamics of emotion regulation: an EEG study of distraction and reappraisal. Biol Psychol 87:84–92
Urry HL (2010) Seeing, thinking, and feeling: emotion-regulating effects of gaze-directed cognitive reappraisal. Emotion 1:125–135. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017434
Van Dillen LF, Koole SL (2007) Clearing the mind: a working memory model of distraction from negative mood. Emotion 7(4):715–723
Webb TL, Miles E, Sheeran P (2012) Dealing with feeling: a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychol Bull 138(4):775–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600
Williams LE, Bargh JA, Nocera CC, Gray JR (2009) The unconscious regulation of emotion: nonconscious reappraisal goals modulate emotional reactivity. Emotion 9(6):847–854. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017745
Willroth EC, Hilimire MR (2016) Differential effects of self- and situation-focused reappraisal. Emotion 16:468–474
Xie X, Mulej Bratec S, Schmid G, Meng C, Doll A, Wohlschläger A, Finke K, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Pekrun R, Sorg C (2016) How do you make me feel better? Social cognitive emotion regulation and the default mode network. NeuroImage 134:270–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.015
Yuan J, Meng X, Yang J, Yao G, Hu L, Yuan H (2012) The valence strength of unpleasant emotion modulates brain processing of behavioral inhibitory control: neural correlates. Biol Psychol 89(1):240–251
Yuan J, Long Q, Ding N, Lou Y, Liu Y, Yang J (2015a) Suppression dampens unpleasant emotion faster than reappraisal: neural dynamics in a Chinese sample. Sci China Life Sci 58:1–12
Yuan J, Ding N, Liu Y, Yang J (2015b) Unconscious emotion regulation: nonconscious reappraisal decreases emotion-related physiological reactivity during frustration. Cognit Emot 29(6):1042–1053. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2014.965663
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31671164, 31871103, 31600886).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
All authors report no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ma, B., Meng, X.X., Long, Q. et al. Automatic self-focused and situation-focused reappraisal of disgusting emotion by implementation intention: an ERP study. Cogn Neurodyn 13, 567–577 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-019-09542-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-019-09542-z