Factors governing the effective remediation of negative affect and its cognitive and behavioral consequences.

Abstract

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that the remediation of negative emotion will be most effective when the remedial procedure matches the experience or cognition that induced the negative state--process-specificity hypothesis. Other hypotheses examined were that negative states induced by cognitive reflection related to the self would be resistant to remediation, even by a same-process positive procedure, and that changes in emotional expressions may make it appear that a negative state has been effectively remediated when lingering effects on behavior and cognition indicate that it has not. Negative emotional states were induced in second-grade children by one of four processes, all of which involved social rejection content: cognition that focused on (a) the self (thinking about oneself being rejected by a peer) or (b) another person (thinking about a peer being rejected); or experience that related to (c) oneself (actually being socially rejected) or (d) observing another (vicarious: seeing a peer be socially rejected). These inductions were then followed by a positive, remedial induction whose content was the reverse (social acceptance) and whose process did or did not match that of the negative induction. As predicted, except for negative self-cognitions, it was found that the behavioral (altruism) and cognitive (performance on a block design task) consequences of negative emotion were alleviated when the positive remediation was of the same type as the original induction. Emotional expressions were consistently positive following remediation, regardless of their type. The results are discussed in terms of differing processes for maintaining negative emotion as a function of the character of induction, and the implications for the understanding of clinical depression in children are noted.

Beyond Money

“…People feel lonely when their relationships are severed, and they feel anxious at the prospect of losing important relationships (e.g., Leary, 1990). Negative emotions result when people are excluded from social groups (e.g., Barden, Garber, Leiman, Ford, & Masters, 1985), and individuals with close social bonds suffer if they are separated for long periods of time (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). For example, wives of men who work on submarines often experience increased physical illness and depression during their spouses' absences (Beckman, Marsella, & Finney, 1979).…”

Affect and memory in young children

“…Children in the neutral affect condition at retrieval did show greater sadness (2.92) than children in the happy affect conditions (1.48) (t = -1.95, p < .05). Since affect inductions prior to retrieval were the second in a series, and research on multiple affect inductions suggest a strong primary effect, the apparently weaker impact of affect inductions at retrieval was not unexpected and was deemed consistent with the likelihood under natural conditions that mood states at retrieval will commonly be weaker than those at encoding (Barden et al, 1981;Barden et al, 1985).…”

“…The affect induction procedure for the present experiment was based upon a standard cognitive induction procedure that has been used successfully in a number of studies (e.g., Barden et al, 1981;Barden, Garber, Leiman, Ford, & Masters, 1985;Moore et al, 1973;Rosenhan et al, 1974;Underwood et al, 1973) and has been validated using independent measures of affect (Masters et al, 1979). In this procedure, children generate a thought of a particular affective valence and then dwell upon it for a brief period of time (typically, 30 seconds).…”

“…For the present study, the induction procedure was further strengthened by the addition of a vicarious component (cf. Barden et al, 1985) that involved showing the child pictures ef other children and families experiencing the state being induced.…”

Ethnic dissimilarity predicts belonging motive frustration and reduced organizational attachment

“…Humans' desire for belonging is considered a basic and universal need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995;Bowlby, 1969;Maslow, 1968); hence, people experience low academic achievement, reduced meaning in life, emotional distress, or even physical pathology when they are socially disconnected (Barden, Garber, Leiman, Ford, & Masters, 1985;Leary, 1990;Lynch, 1977;Murphy, Steele, & Gross, 2007;Stillman et al, 2009; Running head: ETHNIC DISSIMILARITY AND THE BELONGING MOTIVE 6 Walton & Cohen, 2007, 2011. However, individuals also have a basic need to be distinct from others (Lynn & Snyder, 2002;Snyder & Fromkin, 1980;Vignoles et al, 2000).…”