The authors conducted 2 studies to identify the vocal acoustical correlates of unresolved anger and sadness among women reporting unresolved anger toward an attachment figure. In Study 1, participants (N = 17) were induced to experience and express anger then sadness or sadness then anger. In Study 2, a 2nd group of participants (N = 22) underwent a relationship-oriented, emotion-focused analogue therapy session. Results from both studies showed that, relative to emotionally neutral speech, anger evoked an increase in articulation rate and in mean fundamental frequency (F0) and F0-range, whereas sadness evoked an increase in F0-perturbation. Both F0 and F0-range were larger for anger than for sadness. In addition, results from the mood-induction-procedure study revealed 2 Emotion×Order interactions. Whereas variations in amplitude range suggested that anger evoked less physiological activation when induced after sadness, variations in F0-perturbation suggested that sadness evoked more physiological activation when induced after anger. These findings illustrate the feasibility of using acoustical measures to identify clients' personally and clinically meaningful emotional experiences, and shifts between such emotional experiences, in the context of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
Arousing and processing primary vulnerable emotions is a core change mechanism across a wide range of psychotherapies and clinical populations. This study examined the utility of 2 emotion-focused interventions—relational reframes and empty-chair enactments—in terms of arousing primary sadness associated with loss and longing among individuals suffering from unresolved anger. Twenty-nine women reporting unresolved anger underwent a single, analogue emotion-focused therapy session comprised of empathy, relational reframe, and empty-chair interventions. The arousal of sadness was measured with voice signal, voice quality, and speech fluency measures. Results indicated that both relational reframe and empty-chair interventions led to increased arousal of sadness relative to baseline nonemotional speech. Empty-chair interventions also led to increases in fear/anxiety, presumably due to the potential for rejection or attack by the significant other (i.e., attachment figure). Treatment implications are discussed.
Emotion-sensitive speech/vocal acoustic measures are now available to study emotions expressed during psychotherapy sessions. This paper highlights the feasibility of employing such acoustic parameters alongside well-known self-report and observer ratings of emotions. The acoustic method is presented together with findings of the acoustic profiles of discrete emotions. The primary goal, however, is to introduce researchers to this measurement procedure: an introductory guide provides examples of how to generate an acoustical analysis of emotionally loaded vocal expressions. The procedures have been adapted to the study of emotions typically aroused in psychotherapy such as anger and sadness.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.