On the emotions that accompany autobiographical memories: Dysphoria disrupts the fading affect bias

Walker, W. Richard; Skowronski, John J.; Gibbons, Jeffrey A.; Vogl, Rodney J.; Thompson, Charles P.

doi:10.1080/02699930302287

Cited by 120 publications

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“…Evidence suggests that dysphoria, anxiety, alcohol consumption, and recreational substance usage disrupt the FAB (Gibbons et al, 2013;Ritchie & Skowronski, 2008;Walker, et al, 2003a;Walker, Yancu, Skowronski, & Vogl, 2013), and for those who recalled events of regret and disappointment (Beike & Crone, 2008).…”

Section: This Is An Author's Accepted Manuscript Of An Article Publismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within the context of emotion regulation we view the FAB as a robust intrapersonal process, indicative of emotion and self-regulation. For instance, the FAB is weak or not present among individuals with symptoms of depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or excessive narcissism (Ritchie & Dromey, 2014;Ritchie, Walker, Marsh, & Skowronski, 2014;Walker, 1998;Walker et al, 2003a;Walker, Yancu, Skowronski, & Vogl, 2014). In terms of Keltner and Haidt's (1999) model, we think that the FAB is a universal memorial process that fosters the minimization of negative affect and retention of positive affect of event memories, and that such processes operate independently of local customs and norms.…”

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A pancultural perspective on the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory

Ritchie

Batteson

Bohn

et al. 2014

Memory

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The Fading Affect Bias (FAB) refers to the negative affect associated with autobiographical events fading faster than the positive affect associated with such events, a reliable and valid valence effect established by researchers in the U.S.A. The present study examined the idea that the FAB is a ubiquitous emotion regulating phenomenon in autobiographical memory that is present in people from a variety of cultures. We tested for evidence of the FAB by sampling more than 2,400 autobiographical event descriptions from 562 participants in 10 cultures around the world. Using variations on a common method, each sample evidenced a FAB: Positive affect faded slower than negative affect did. Results suggest that in tandem with local norms and customs, the FAB may foster recovery from negative life events and promote the retention of the positive emotions, within and outside of the U.S.A. We discuss these findings in the context of Keltner and Haidt's (1999) levels of analysis theory of emotion and culture. Memory, epub ahead of print published online:14th February 2014, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09658211.2014 3 This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in A Pancultural Perspective on the Fading Affect Bias in Autobiographical MemoryThe human experience is replete with personal, emotional events. The emotions associated with life events can be positive or negative, fleeting or long lasting, disruptive or soothing. Emotions are constructed, in part, by biological and social mechanisms that moderate the affective experience and its expression. Much of the research on emotions has focused on immediate consequences for thought and behavior (Barrett, Niedenthal, & Winkielman, 2005;Damasio, 2003;Forgas, 2000). However, a growing body of research has begun to examine the fate of personal events' emotions over time ). This research suggests that many emotions evidence an overall pattern of affective fading. For many events, their associated emotions become less intense with the passage of time, some gradually, others abruptly (Gibbons, Lee, & Walker, 2011;Ritchie & Batteson, 2013). Importantly, this tendency for affective fading is biased such that negative emotions, on average, fade significantly faster than do positive emotions. This pattern of affect change is the Fading Affect Bias (FAB).The evidence for such a differential fading of positive and negative affect is robust and shows demonstratively that many adults evidence a FAB. Nonetheless, the majority of the early research on the FAB involved North American samples of university students, particularly those from the United States (Walker, Vogl, & Thompson, 1997). There remains the possibility that the FAB represents a cultural phenomenon, such that it may only be present in the relatively homogeneous samples thus far examined, within the U.S. To our knowledge, no prior work has provided data that enable us to compare the FAB cross-culturally' thus, the possibility of a culture-specific effect remains open. F...

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Section: This Is An Author's Accepted Manuscript Of An Article Publismentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

A pancultural perspective on the fading affect bias in autobiographical memory

Ritchie

Batteson

Bohn

et al. 2014

Memory

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“…More intense negative emotions associated with autobiographical memories during dysphoria may at least partly be explained by the weaker fading affect bias described by Walker et al, (2003). In their study, dysphoric individuals reported overall more intense negative emotions when recalling selected voluntary memories than non-depressed individuals even after controlling for the age of events.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Emotional Intensity and Emotion Regulation in Response to Autobiographical Memories During Dysphoria

2017

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“…Based on the negative relation between the FAB and dysphoria (Walker, Skowronski, Gibbons, Vogl, & Thompson, 2003), some researchers have argued that the FAB is a healthy coping mechanism . As religious variables are related to positive emotions and emotional coping (e.g., Cohen, 2002;Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998), we examined the FAB as a healthy coping mechanism at the general and specific levels of analysis in the context of religion.…”

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confidence: 99%