Implicit Positive Emotion Counteracts Ego Depletion

Abstract

Previous researchers have shown that individual acts of self-regulation deplete individual psychological resources, resulting in poor subsequent self-regulation and ego depletion. It has also been shown that to counteract ego depletion, besides getting enough sleep or rest, positive emotions are important. In this study we aimed to establish whether or not implicit positive emotion is important in countering ego depletion. In 2 experiments measuring the duration of self-regulation after implicit positive emotion it was found that self-regulation counteracts ego depletion. Participants in an ego-depleted condition were exposed to subliminal positive stimuli and they persisted in subsequent self-regulation longer than another group of participants who were exposed to subliminal neutral stimuli.Psychological resources play important roles in individuals carrying out conscious activities. In previous studies it has been shown that an individual consumes a large amount of psychological resources to perform some acts of selfregulation. As a result, at that time, the individual lacks necessary psychological resources, that is, the individual experiences a state of ego depletion, which may lead to inappropriate subsequent self-regulation or out-of-control behavior by that individual (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998; Muraven, SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2010, 38 (7), [919][920][921][922][923][924][925][926][927][928]

The Association between Controlled Interpersonal Affect Regulation and Resource Depletion

“…When that feedback is positive, the resource depleted by self‐regulation can partly be recovered so ego‐depletion is reduced. Positive feedback may induce a positive affective state in the agents, one which may compensate for either the effect of depletion or the subjective perception of depletion (Aspinwall, ; Ren, Hu, Zhang, & Huang, ). Affect‐improving IAR is more likely to produce positive feedback than affect‐worsening.…”

Vocal Control: Is It Susceptible to the Negative Effects of Self-Regulatory Depletion?

“…The lack of an effect may be because the intervention was not effective; however, participants reported increased relaxation and pleasant mood after the intervention, both of which have been associated with repletion in prior studies. 16,53 Similarly, the intervention group reported significantly less mental effort on the relaxation task than the writing task.…”

Niños socialmente hábiles: ¿Cuánto influyen la empatía y las emociones positivas?

“…Estudios previos dan cuenta de que las emo ciones positivas constituyen un factor pro tector de la salud porque promueven el desarrollo de importantes recursos cognitivos, comportamentales, sociales y biológicos que posibilitan un ajuste funcional al medio (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005;Froh, Yurkewicz & Kashdan, 2008;Johnson, Waugh & Fredrickson, 2010;Ren, Hu, Zhang & Huang, 2010;Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley & Joseph, 2008).…”