The Tie That Binds? Coherence Among Emotion Experience, Behavior, and Physiology.

Abstract

Emotion theories commonly postulate that emotions impose coherence across multiple response systems. However, empirical support for this coherence postulate is surprisingly limited. In the present study, the authors (a) examined the within-individual associations among experiential, facial behavioral, and peripheral physiological responses during emotional responding and (b) assessed whether emotion intensity moderates these associations. Experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses were measured second-by-second during a film that induced amusement and sadness. Results indicate that experience and behavior were highly associated but that physiological responses were only modestly associated with experience and behavior. Intensity of amusement experience was associated with greater coherence between behavior and physiological responding; intensity of sadness experience was not. These findings provide new evidence about response system coherence in emotions.

Dissociation of sad facial expressions and autonomic nervous system responding in boys with disruptive behavior disorders

“…Functionalist theories of emotion suggests that the synchronization of emotional response systems plays a critical role in emotional health and that desynchronization contributes to the emergence and maintenance of psychopathology (see Ekman, 1992;Kring, Kerr, Smith, & Neale, 1993;Levenson, 1994;Mauss, Levenson, McCarter, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2005;Sloan, Strauss, Quirk, & Sajatovic, 1997). According to this perspective, as emotions unfold over time, the coordination of emotional appraisal, expressive behavior, and physiological responses should improve the reliability and precision of emotion cues and promote efficient behavioral and social responses (Levenson, 1994 (Feldman-Barrett, 2006), with some authors finding low to moderate correlations between experiential, behavioral, and physiological response domains (Buck, 1977;Gross & Levenson, 1993,1997Kettunen, Ravaja, Näätänen, Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2000;Lanzetta, Cartwright-Smith, & Kleck, 1976;Mauss et al, 2005), others reporting discrepancies in the direction of effects (Notarius & Levenson, 1979), and still others reporting no relationship at all (Mauss, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2004).…”

“…This suggests that studies of response coherence that include measures of physiological responding may benefit from using independent indicators of PNS (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and SNS (electrodermal responding, cardiac preejection period) activation rather than using measures that are influenced concurrently by both autonomic branches (heart rate). For example, response coherence between electrodermal responding (EDR) and facial affect assessed using a within-participant design during episodes of sadness is moderate to high in samples of healthy adults (Mauss et al, 2005).…”

“…There is now a growing body of literature suggesting that children and adolescents with DBDs have difficulties with several domains of empathic responding, including emotional processing and self-appraisals of emotional experiences (de Wied, Goudena, & Matthys, 2005;Douglas & Strayer, 1996;Herpertz et al, 2005;Strand & Nowicki, 1999). However, other components of empathic responding such as displays of sad facial expressions and autonomic reactivity have only begun to receive empirical attention (Blair, 1999;de Wied et al, 2005;Douglas & Strayer, 1996;Herpertz et al, 2005).Functionalist theories of emotion suggests that the synchronization of emotional response systems plays a critical role in emotional health and that desynchronization contributes to the emergence and maintenance of psychopathology (see Ekman, 1992;Kring, Kerr, Smith, & Neale, 1993;Levenson, 1994;Mauss, Levenson, McCarter, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2005;Sloan, Strauss, Quirk, & Sajatovic, 1997). According to this perspective, as emotions unfold over time, the coordination of emotional appraisal, expressive behavior, and physiological responses should improve the reliability and precision of emotion cues and promote efficient behavioral and social responses (Levenson, 1994 (Feldman-Barrett, 2006), with some authors finding low to moderate correlations between experiential, behavioral, and physiological response domains (Buck, 1977;Gross & Levenson, 1993,1997Kettunen, Ravaja, Näätänen, Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2000;Lanzetta, Cartwright-Smith, & Kleck, 1976;Mauss et al, 2005), others reporting discrepancies in the direction of effects (Notarius & Levenson, 1979), and still others reporting no relationship at all (Mauss, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2004).…”

“…This suggests that studies of response coherence that include measures of physiological responding may benefit from using independent indicators of PNS (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and SNS (electrodermal responding, cardiac preejection period) activation rather than using measures that are influenced concurrently by both autonomic branches (heart rate). For example, response coherence between electrodermal responding (EDR) and facial affect assessed using a within-participant design during episodes of sadness is moderate to high in samples of healthy adults (Mauss et al, 2005).Preliminary research suggests that there are marked individual differences in the degree of response coherence and that deficits in emotion regulation capabilities and/or attempts to control emotional expression may cause uncoupling of response domains for some individuals (Mauss et al, 2005). Along these lines, dissociation of emotion response systems has been noted in those with depression and schizophrenia, two disorders that are characterized by dysregulated emotion, and among individuals low in dispositional emotion expressivity (Gross, John, & Richards, 2000;Kring et al, 1993;Sloan et al, 1997).…”

Evaluating Human Computer Interaction through Self-rated Emotion

“…Recent work has proposed sliders as a useful way to continuously measure selfreported emotion [7,8,9]. My thesis extends this work, to examine: what tools (sliders and variations) can we design to facilitate affective self-report?…”