James Gross

All Publications

Emotion beliefs in social anxiety disorder: Associations with stress, anxiety, and well-being AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY De Castella, K., Goldin, P., Jazaieri, H., Ziv, M., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2014; 66 (2): 139-148
View details for DOI 10.1111/ajpy.12053

View details for Web of Science ID 000335402400009
Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies: Interactive effects during CBT for social anxiety disorder JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS Aldao, A., Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., Gross, J. J. 2014; 28 (4): 382-389
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.03.005

View details for Web of Science ID 000337017300006
An Inflammatory Pathway Links Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk to Neural Activity Evoked by the Cognitive Regulation of Emotion BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY Gianaros, P. J., Marsland, A. L., Kuan, D. C., Schirda, B. L., Jennings, J. R., Sheu, L. K., Hariri, A. R., Gross, J. J., Manuck, S. B. 2014; 75 (9): 738-745
Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal is a form of emotion regulation that alters emotional responding by changing the meaning of emotional stimuli. Reappraisal engages regions of the prefrontal cortex that support multiple functions, including visceral control functions implicated in regulating the immune system. Immune activity plays a role in the preclinical pathophysiology of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD), an inflammatory condition that is highly comorbid with affective disorders characterized by problems with emotion regulation. Here, we tested whether prefrontal engagement by reappraisal would be associated with atherosclerotic CVD risk and whether this association would be mediated by inflammatory activity.Community volunteers (n = 157; 30-54 years of age; 80 women) without DSM-IV Axis-1 psychiatric diagnoses or cardiovascular or immune disorders performed a functional neuroimaging task involving the reappraisal of negative emotional stimuli. Carotid artery intima-media thickness and inter-adventitial diameter were measured by ultrasonography and used as markers of preclinical atherosclerosis. Also measured were circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), an inflammatory cytokine linked to CVD risk and prefrontal neural activity.Greater reappraisal-related engagement of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was associated with greater preclinical atherosclerosis and IL-6. Moreover, IL-6 mediated the association of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex engagement with preclinical atherosclerosis. These results were independent of age, sex, race, smoking status, and other known CVD risk factors.The cognitive regulation of emotion might relate to CVD risk through a pathway involving the functional interplay between the anterior cingulate region of the prefrontal cortex and inflammatory activity.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.10.012

View details for Web of Science ID 000334102400011

View details for PubMedID 24267410
Academic and emotional functioning in middle school: The role of implicit theories. Emotion Romero, C., Master, A., Paunesku, D., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J. 2014; 14 (2): 227-234
Abstract

Adolescents face many academic and emotional challenges in middle school, but notable differences are evident in how well they adapt. What predicts adolescents' academic and emotional outcomes during this period? One important factor might be adolescents' implicit theories about whether intelligence and emotions can change. The current study examines how these theories affect academic and emotional outcomes. One hundred fifteen students completed surveys throughout middle school, and their grades and course selections were obtained from school records. Students who believed that intelligence could be developed earned higher grades and were more likely to move to advanced math courses over time. Students who believed that emotions could be controlled reported fewer depressive symptoms and, if they began middle school with lower well-being, were more likely to feel better over time. These findings illustrate the power of adolescents' implicit theories, suggesting exciting new pathways for intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0035490

View details for PubMedID 24512251
The Ideal of the Dispassionate Judge: An Emotion Regulation Perspective EMOTION REVIEW Maroney, T. A., Gross, J. J. 2014; 6 (2): 142-151
View details for DOI 10.1177/1754073913491989

View details for Web of Science ID 000333451200011
Rethinking emotion: Cognitive reappraisal is an effective positive and negative emotion regulation strategy in bipolar disorder. Emotion Gruber, J., Hay, A. C., Gross, J. J. 2014; 14 (2): 388-396
Abstract

Bipolar disorder involves difficulties with emotion regulation, yet the precise nature of these emotion regulatory difficulties is unclear. The current study examined whether individuals with remitted bipolar I disorder (n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 23) differ in their ability to use one effective and common form of emotion regulation, cognitive reappraisal. Positive, negative, and neutral films were used to elicit emotion, and participants were cued to watch the film carefully (i.e., uninstructed condition) or reappraise while measures of affect, behavior, and psychophysiology were obtained. Results showed that reappraisal was associated with reductions in emotion reactivity across subjective (i.e., positive and negative affect), behavioral (i.e., positive facial displays), and physiological (i.e., skin conductance) response domains across all participants. Results suggest that reappraisal may be an effective regulation strategy for both negative and positive emotion across both healthy adults and individuals with bipolar disorder. Discussion focuses on clinical and treatment implications for bipolar disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0035249

View details for PubMedID 24364852
Effects of antidepressant medication on emotion regulation in depressed patients: An iSPOT-D report JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS McRae, K., Rekshan, W., Williams, L. M., Cooper, N., Gross, J. J. 2014; 159: 127-132
Abstract

Antidepressant medication (ADM) is thought to reduce depressive symptoms by altering emotion-generative brain systems. However, it is unknown whether successful ADM treatment is associated with changes in psychobehavioral strategies used to regulate emotions. We examined depressive symptoms and emotion regulation strategies before and after ADM in the international Study to Predict Optimized Treatment in Depression (iSPOT-D).The study enrolled 1008 adult patients with MDD (18-65 years old) from 18 primary and psychiatric care sites worldwide. Patients were randomly assigned to an 8-week course of escitalopram, sertraline, or venlafaxine-extended-release. We examined whether ADM is associated with changes in suppression, usually associated with maladaptive outcomes, and reappraisal, usually associated with adaptive outcomes. We also tested whether changes in emotion regulation predict changes in depressive symptoms following ADM.We observed more adaptive emotion regulation (decreased use of suppression and increased use of reappraisal) following ADM. Furthermore, the largest improvements in emotion regulation were associated with the best treatment outcomes.Because we assessed acute outcomes, it is not yet known if the effects of ADM on emotion regulation would persist over time.ADMs are associated with acute, adaptive changes in the psychobehavioral strategies used to regulate emotions.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2014.12.037

View details for Web of Science ID 000333398400019

View details for PubMedID 24679400
Reappraisal generation after acquired brain damage: the role of laterality and cognitive control FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY Salas, C. E., Gross, J. J., Turnbull, O. H. 2014; 5
Abstract

In the past decade, there has been growing interest in the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological bases of reappraisal. Findings suggest that reappraisal activates a set of areas in the left hemisphere (LH), which are commonly associated with language abilities and verbally mediated cognitive control. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether individuals with focal damage to the LH (n = 8) were more markedly impaired on a reappraisal generation task than individuals with right hemisphere lesions (RH, n = 8), and healthy controls (HC, n = 14). The reappraisal generation task consisted of a set of ten pictures from the IAPS, depicting negative events of different sorts. Participants were asked to quickly generate as many positive reinterpretations as possible for each picture. Two scores were derived from this task, namely difficulty and productivity. A second goal of this study was to explore which cognitive control processes were associated with performance on the reappraisal task. For this purpose, participants were assessed on several measures of cognitive control. Findings indicated that reappraisal difficulty - defined as the time taken to generate a first reappraisal - did not differ between LH and RH groups. However, differences were found between patients with brain injury (LH + RH) and HC, suggesting that brain damage in either hemisphere influences reappraisal difficulty. No differences in reappraisal productivity were found across groups, suggesting that neurological groups and HC are equally productive when time constraints are not considered. Finally, only two cognitive control processes inhibition and verbal fluency- were inversely associated with reappraisal difficulty. Implications for the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological bases of reappraisal generation are discussed, and implications for neuro-rehabilitation are considered.

View details for DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00242

View details for Web of Science ID 000333162400001

View details for PubMedID 24711799
A randomized controlled trial of compassion cultivation training: Effects on mindfulness, affect, and emotion regulation MOTIVATION AND EMOTION Jazaieri, H., McGonigal, K., Jinpa, T., Doty, J. R., Gross, J. J., Goldin, P. R. 2014; 38 (1): 23-35
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11031-013-9368-z

View details for Web of Science ID 000330382800002
Emotion regulation choice: A conceptual framework and supporting evidence. Journal of experimental psychology. General Sheppes, G., Scheibe, S., Suri, G., Radu, P., Blechert, J., Gross, J. J. 2014; 143 (1): 163-181
Abstract

Choice behavior is considered the fundamental means by which individuals exert control over their environments. One important choice domain that remains virtually unexplored is that of emotion regulation. This is surprising given that healthy adaptation requires flexibly choosing between regulation strategies in a manner that is responsive to differing situational demands. In the present article, we provide a broad conceptual framework that systematically evaluates the rules that govern the ways individuals choose between different emotion regulation strategies. This conceptual account is buttressed by empirical findings from 6 studies that show the effects of hypothesized emotional, cognitive, and motivational determinants of regulation choice (Studies 1-3) and illuminate the mechanisms that underlie choices between different emotion regulation strategies (Studies 4-6). Broad implications and future directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0030831

View details for PubMedID 23163767
Resolving intractable intergroup conflicts: The role of implicit theories about groups The handbook of conflict resolution Halperin, E., Gross, J. J., Dweck, C. S. edited by Deutsch, M., Coleman, P., Marcus, E. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 2014: 384–399
The dark and light sides of humor: An emotion regulation perspective. The dark and light sides of positive emotion Samson, A. C., Gross, J. J. edited by Gruber, J., Moskowitz, J. New York, NY: Oxford.. 2014: 169–182
The neural bases of emotion and emotion regulation: A valuation perspective Handbook of emotion regulation Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford. 2014; 2: 23–42
Handbook of emotion regulation edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford. 2014
Hope in the Middle East: Malleability Beliefs, Hope, and the Willingness to Compromise for Peace SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PERSONALITY SCIENCE Cohen-Chen, S., Halperin, E., Crisp, R. J., Gross, J. J. 2014; 5 (1): 67-75
View details for DOI 10.1177/1948550613484499

View details for Web of Science ID 000336437300010
Emotion regulation: Conceptual and empirical foundations Handbook of emotion regulation Gross, J. J. edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford. 2014; 2: 3–20
Emotion generation and emotion regulation: Moving beyond traditional dual-process accounts Dualprocess theories of the social mind Sheppes, G., Gross, J. J. edited by Sherman, J. W., Gawronski, B., Trope, Y. New York, NY: Guilford. 2014: 483–493
Emotion regulation in education: Conceptual foundations, current applications, and future directions International handbook of emotions in education Jacob, S., Gross, J. J. edited by Pekrun, R., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. New York, NY: Routledge. 2014: 183–201
A Prospective Investigation of Mindfulness Skills and Changes in Emotion Regulation Among Military Veterans in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatment MINDFULNESS Reber, C. A., Boden, M. T., Mitragotri, N., Alvarez, J., Gross, J. J., Bonn-Miller, M. O. 2013; 4 (4): 311-317
View details for DOI 10.1007/s12671-012-0131-4

View details for Web of Science ID 000339617300004
Emotion Regulation in Intractable Conflicts CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Gross, J. J., Halperin, E., Porat, R. 2013; 22 (6): 423-429
View details for DOI 10.1177/0963721413495871

View details for Web of Science ID 000327758400001
The Emerging Field of Affective Science EMOTION Gross, J. J., Barrett, L. F. 2013; 13 (6): 997-998
Abstract

This commentary discusses the emerging field of affective science. The authors note that there have been more publications containing the phrase "affective science" in the past few years than in all prior years combined. The importance accorded to this field is evidenced by the attention it is now receiving in our field's highest tier journals, most notably right here in the pages of Emotion, as well as in the several dozen recent volumes on affective science, not to mention the growing number of journals dedicated to research in affective science. To provide an integrated professional home for the emerging field of affective science, the Society for Affective Science was founded in 2012, and will host its first meeting in April 2014 in Washington DC. The authors remark that these are exciting times in affective science, and it is very clear that the best is yet to come.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0034512

View details for Web of Science ID 000328291400001

View details for PubMedID 24320711
Beliefs About Emotion: Links to Emotion Regulation, Well-Being, and Psychological Distress BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY De Castella, K., Goldin, P., Jazaieri, H., Ziv, M., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J. 2013; 35 (6): 497-505
View details for DOI 10.1080/01973533.2013.840632

View details for Web of Science ID 000327235400001
Emotion Regulation and Emotion Coherence: Evidence for Strategy-Specific Effects EMOTION Dan-Glauser, E. S., Gross, J. J. 2013; 13 (5): 832-842
Abstract

One of the central tenets of emotion theory is that emotions involve coordinated changes across experiential, behavioral, and physiological response domains. Surprisingly little is known, however, about how the strength of this emotion coherence is altered when people try to regulate their emotions. To address this issue, we recorded experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses while participants watched negative and positive pictures. Cross-correlations were used to quantify emotion coherence. Study 1 tested how two types of suppression (expressive and physiological) influence coherence. Results showed that both strategies decreased the response coherence measured in negative and positive contexts. Study 2 tested how multichannel suppression (simultaneously targeting expressive and physiological responses) and acceptance influence emotion coherence. Results again showed that suppression decreased coherence. By contrast, acceptance was not significantly different from the unregulated condition. These findings help to clarify the nature of emotion response coherence by showing how different forms of emotion regulation may differentially affect it.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0032672

View details for Web of Science ID 000325467200005

View details for PubMedID 23731438
Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder on the Neural Dynamics of Cognitive Reappraisal of Negative Self-beliefs Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA PSYCHIATRY Goldin, P. R., Ziv, M., Jazaieri, H., Hahn, K., Heimberg, R., Gross, J. J. 2013; 70 (10): 1048-1056
Abstract

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD) is thought to enhance cognitive reappraisal in patients with SAD. Such improvements should be evident in cognitive reappraisal-related prefrontal cortex responses.To determine whether CBT for SAD modifies cognitive reappraisal-related prefrontal cortex neural signal magnitude and timing when implementing cognitive reappraisal with negative self-beliefs. DESIGN Randomized clinical trial of CBT for SAD vs wait-list control group during a study that enrolled patients from 2007 to 2010.University psychology department.Seventy-five patients with generalized SAD randomly assigned to CBT or wait list.Sixteen sessions of individual CBT for SAD.Negative emotion ratings and functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen-level dependent signal when reacting to and cognitively reappraising negative self-beliefs embedded in autobiographical social anxiety situations. RESULTS During reactivity trials, compared with wait list, CBT produced (1) greater reduction in negative emotion ratings and (2) greater blood oxygen-level dependent signal magnitude in the medial prefrontal cortex. During cognitive reappraisal trials, compared with wait list, CBT produced (3) greater reduction in negative emotion ratings, (4) greater blood oxygen level-dependent signal magnitude in the dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, (5) earlier temporal onset of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activity, and (6) greater dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-amygdala inverse functional connectivity.Modulation of cognitive reappraisal-related brain responses, timing, and functional connectivity may be important brain changes that contribute to the effectiveness of CBT for social anxiety. This study demonstrates that clinically applied neuroscience investigations can elucidate neurobiological mechanisms of change in psychiatric conditions.clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00380731.

View details for DOI 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.234

View details for Web of Science ID 000325184100009

View details for PubMedID 23945981
Patient Inertia and the Status Quo Bias When an Inferior Option Is Preferred PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Suri, G., Sheppes, G., Schwartz, C., Gross, J. J. 2013; 24 (9): 1763-1769
View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797613479976

View details for Web of Science ID 000324403000017
The psychophysiology of mixed emotional states. Psychophysiology Kreibig, S. D., Samson, A. C., Gross, J. J. 2013; 50 (8): 799-811
Abstract

How to conceptualize mixed emotional states is a central issue in the field of affective science. Nondifferentiation, additive, and emergence accounts of mixed emotions make divergent predictions regarding physiological responses in mixed emotions. To test these predictions, 43 women watched film clips that elicited amusement, disgust, or mixed emotions while feeling self-report, facial electromyography, cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory measures were assessed. Simultaneous self-reports of amusement and disgust confirmed elicitation of a mixed emotional state. Physiologically, mixed emotions differed from pure amusement and pure disgust both in intensity and pattern. This suggests a distinct physiological response of the mixed emotional state, as predicted by the emergence account of mixed emotions. Implications for emotion theory and research are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1111/psyp.12064

View details for PubMedID 23730872
Concrete behaviour and reappraisal deficits after a left frontal stroke: A case study NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL REHABILITATION Salas, C. E., Gross, J. J., Rafal, R. D., Vinas-Guasch, N., Turnbull, O. H. 2013; 23 (4): 467-500
Abstract

Concrete behaviour, the inability to disengage from immediate experience in order to manipulate ideas and thoughts, has long been understood to be a common problem after frontal lobe lesions. However, there has been little consideration of the impact that concreteness may have on emotional functioning, specifically in the use of thinking to manipulate emotional responses. One widely studied emotion regulation strategy is reappraisal, which depends on several frontal lobe related cognitive control processes. While there have been numerous neuroimaging findings on reappraisal, no study has used brain injured patients to investigate this issue. The present case study is the first to describe the capacity to generate reappraisals in a patient (Mrs M), whose behaviour became concrete after a left prefrontal stroke. Using a picture-based reappraisal paradigm, her performance was compared to non-concrete brain-lesioned patients, and neurologically healthy controls. Although Mrs M showed relatively preserved overall cognitive function, she was completely unable to spontaneously generate reappraisals. In striking contrast, once external support was offered, in the form of prompts, her capacity to reappraise dramatically improved. The results are analysed in terms of three neuropsychological capacities - all compromised in Mrs M - previously proposed as reappraisal components: response inhibition, abstraction, and verbal fluency. A number of implications for rehabilitation are discussed, including how the use of prompting may facilitate reappraisal capacity.

View details for DOI 10.1080/09602011.2013.784709

View details for Web of Science ID 000322151600001

View details for PubMedID 23551078
Enhancing Compassion: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Compassion Cultivation Training Program JOURNAL OF HAPPINESS STUDIES Jazaieri, H., Jinpa, G. T., McGonigal, K., Rosenberg, E. L., Finkelstein, J., Simon-Thomas, E., Cullen, M., Doty, J. R., Gross, J. J., Goldin, P. R. 2013; 14 (4): 1113-1126
View details for DOI 10.1007/s10902-012-9373-z

View details for Web of Science ID 000323740500002
A Brief Intervention to Promote Conflict Reappraisal Preserves Marital Quality Over Time PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Finkel, E. J., Slotter, E. B., Luchies, L. B., Walton, G. M., Gross, J. J. 2013; 24 (8): 1595-1601
Abstract

Marital quality is a major contributor to happiness and health. Unfortunately, marital quality normatively declines over time. We tested whether a novel 21-min intervention designed to foster the reappraisal of marital conflicts could preserve marital quality in a sample of 120 couples enrolled in an intensive 2-year study. Half of the couples were randomly assigned to receive the reappraisal intervention in Year 2 (following no intervention in Year 1); half were not. Both groups exhibited declines in marital quality over Year 1. This decline continued in Year 2 among couples in the control condition, but it was eliminated among couples in the reappraisal condition. This effect of the reappraisal intervention on marital quality over time was mediated through reductions in conflict-related distress over time. This study illustrates the potential of brief, theory-based, social-psychological interventions to preserve the quality of intimate relationships over time.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797612474938

View details for Web of Science ID 000322904700025

View details for PubMedID 23804960
Maladaptive Cognitive Emotion Regulation Prospectively Predicts Subclinical Paranoia COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH Westermann, S., Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J., Lincoln, T. M. 2013; 37 (4): 881-885
View details for DOI 10.1007/s10608-013-9523-6

View details for Web of Science ID 000322272100024
Predicting Affective Choice JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL Suri, G., Sheppes, G., Gross, J. J. 2013; 142 (3): 627-632
Abstract

Affect is increasingly recognized as central to decision making. However, it is not clear whether affect can be used to predict choice. To address this issue, we conducted 4 studies designed to create and test a model that could predict choice from affect. In Study 1, we used an image rating task to develop a model that predicted approach-avoidance motivations. This model quantified the role of two basic dimensions of affect-valence and arousal-in determining choice. We then tested the predictive power of this model for two types of decisions involving images: preference based selections (Study 2) and risk-reward trade-offs (Study 3). In both cases, the model derived in Study 1 predicted choice and outperformed competing models drawn from well-established theoretical views. Finally, we showed that this model has ecological validity: It predicted choices between news articles on the basis of headlines (Study 4). These findings have implications for diverse fields, including neuroeconomics and judgment and decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0029900

View details for Web of Science ID 000322353600004

View details for PubMedID 22924884
Childhood maltreatment and response to cognitive behavioral therapy among individuals with social anxiety disorder. Depression and anxiety Bruce, L. C., Heimberg, R. G., Goldin, P. R., Gross, J. J. 2013; 30 (7): 662-669
Abstract

The association between childhood maltreatment-particularly emotional maltreatment-and social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been established by research. Only recently have researchers begun to look at the impact of childhood maltreatment on treatment outcomes, and findings have been mixed. Because prior studies have focused on pharmacotherapy outcomes, or used global measures of childhood adversity or abuse, it is not clear how specific types of maltreatment impact outcomes in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for SAD. The current study reports on how specific types of childhood maltreatment such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect impact response to CBT in adults with SAD.Sixty-eight individuals with a primary diagnosis of SAD completed the childhood trauma questionnaire, along with measures of social anxiety, disability, and life satisfaction.Childhood maltreatment did not affect the rate of response to CBT, but there is evidence for its negative impact. Patients with histories of emotional abuse and emotional neglect reported greater social anxiety, less satisfaction, and greater disability over the course of treatment. Sexual abuse also predicted greater social anxiety.Childhood abuse and/or neglect did not result in differential rates of improvement during CBT; however, those reporting histories of emotional and sexual forms of maltreatment evidenced greater symptoms and/or impairment at pre- and posttreatment. Additional attention to the role of traumatic experiences within CBT for SAD may be warranted.

View details for DOI 10.1002/da.22112

View details for PubMedID 23554134
There's More to Anxiety Than Meets the Eye: Isolating Threat-Related Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Biases EMOTION Sheppes, G., Luria, R., Fukuda, K., Gross, J. J. 2013; 13 (3): 520-528
Abstract

Threat-related attentional biases represent a basic survival mechanism. These biases include an engagement bias involving rapid direction of attention toward threat and a disengagement bias involving slow direction of attention away from threat. The exact nature of these biases in healthy and anxious individuals remains controversial because of the challenges associated with accurately isolating each of these attentional biases. Combining a cognitive attentional task with classical conditioning using electric stimulation, we created a new paradigm that makes it possible to more clearly isolate these attentional biases. Utilizing this novel paradigm, we detected both types of attentional bias and differentiated between levels of trait anxiety, in which low- and high-trait anxiety individuals showed equal levels of engagement bias, but only high-trait anxiety individuals showed impaired disengagement from threat.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0031236

View details for Web of Science ID 000320064900018

View details for PubMedID 23356563
Emotion Regulation: Taking Stock and Moving Forward EMOTION Gross, J. J. 2013; 13 (3): 359-365
Abstract

The field of emotion regulation has now come of age. However, enthusiasm for the topic continues to outstrip conceptual clarity. In this article, I review the state of the field. I do this by asking--and attempting to succinctly answer--10 fundamental questions concerning emotion regulation, ranging from what emotion regulation is, to why it matters, to how we can change it. I conclude by considering some of the challenges that confront this rapidly growing field.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0032135

View details for Web of Science ID 000320064900001

View details for PubMedID 23527510
Affective Science and Health: The Importance of Emotion and Emotion Regulation HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY DeSteno, D., Gross, J. J., Kubzansky, L. 2013; 32 (5): 474-486
Abstract

The goal of this article is to provide insight into how recent findings from affective science may be translated into the health arena.We first review definitional issues related to the key concepts of emotion and stress. We then review relevant research that informs our understanding of the affect-health relationship. Subsequently, we highlight findings that are the most informative and also ripe for translation into the domains of health and health-related behaviors.We identify several domains of affect-relevant processes (e.g., emotion-regulation, stress response) that would benefit from increased elaboration. Three themes may guide how best to broaden our understanding across multiple domains: the need to use a differentiated emotion-based approach, the need to consider potential synergistic and oppositional effects of emotion that can occur in parallel, and the need to examine the impact of emotions with respect to regulation and coping at both the intra- and interindividual levels. Building on insights derived from these themes, we suggest a broad integrative framework for use with future investigations. This framework categorizes potential emotion-related effects on health according to whether they influence health directly (e.g., shaping physiological responses) or indirectly (e.g., guiding decision making and behavior). Using this approach will allow researchers to examine systematically the often simultaneous and sometimes opposing influences of emotion on distinct health-relevant cognitive and physiological mechanisms, and to integrate across potentially disparate findings.We conclude by suggesting opportunities for future work that we see as most fruitful based on the presented framework.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0030259

View details for Web of Science ID 000318523400003

View details for PubMedID 23646831
EMOTION REGULATION AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: A PROSPECTIVE INVESTIGATION JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Boden, M. T., Westermann, S., McRae, K., Kuo, J., Alvarez, J., Kulkarni, M. R., Gross, J. J., Bonn-Miller, M. O. 2013; 32 (3): 296-314
View details for Web of Science ID 000315675300003
Friend or Foe? Age Moderates Time-Course Specific Responsiveness to Trustworthiness Cues JOURNALS OF GERONTOLOGY SERIES B-PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Petrican, R., English, T., Gross, J. J., Grady, C., Hai, T., Moscovitch, M. 2013; 68 (2): 215-223
Abstract

There is growing evidence of a greater focus on positive relative to negative information in older adulthood. Up to date, the age-related positivity effect in affective processing has been only investigated with respect to explicit emotional cues. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether similar age-related differences would be observed in reference to subtler cues, such as emotionally suggestive structural facial characteristics.We used a gaze following paradigm and investigated the temporal dynamics of responding to facial trustworthiness cues in younger and older adults.Both age groups provided similar trustworthiness evaluations. Nonetheless, under responding conditions that allowed for volitional modulatory influences (600 ms), older (but not younger) adults with superior cognitive resources showed more gaze following in response to trustworthy than to untrustworthy looking faces.This study provided initial evidence that the age-related positivity effect in affective processing extends to subtle emotional cues, generally interpreted as being reflective of socially relevant personality traits. Implications for aging theories of motivated cognition and developmental changes in reliance on superficial affective cues are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1093/geronb/gbs064

View details for Web of Science ID 000315050900008

View details for PubMedID 22929388
The interactive effects of emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal on problematic cannabis use among medical cannabis users ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J., Babson, K. A., Bonn-Miller, M. O. 2013; 38 (3): 1663-1668
Abstract

This study examined whether emotional clarity (i.e., the extent to which one can identify and understand the type and source of emotions one experiences) and cognitive reappraisal (i.e., altering how potentially emotion-eliciting situations are construed to change their emotional impact) would individually or jointly be associated with problematic cannabis use among individuals receiving cannabis for medical reasons (n=153). Findings indicated that problematic cannabis use was predicted by the interaction between emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal. In particular, low levels of emotional clarity combined with high levels of cognitive reappraisal predicted problematic cannabis use. The current study is the first to demonstrate the interactive effects of emotional clarity and the use of cognitive reappraisal in predicting substance use disorder outcomes. Such findings are important given the lack of empirical data demonstrating for whom and for which conditions cannabis is either beneficial or detrimental.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.addbeh.2012.09.001

View details for Web of Science ID 000315369800012

View details for PubMedID 23254215
MBSR vs aerobic exercise in social anxiety: fMRI of emotion regulation of negative self-beliefs SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE Goldin, P., Ziv, M., Jazaieri, H., Hahn, K., Gross, J. J. 2013; 8 (1): 65-72
Abstract

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is thought to reduce emotional reactivity and enhance emotion regulation in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). The goal of this study was to examine the neural correlates of deploying attention to regulate responses to negative self-beliefs using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants were 56 patients with generalized SAD in a randomized controlled trial who were assigned to MBSR or a comparison aerobic exercise (AE) stress reduction program. Compared to AE, MBSR yielded greater (i) reductions in negative emotion when implementing regulation and (ii) increases in attention-related parietal cortical regions. Meditation practice was associated with decreases in negative emotion and social anxiety symptom severity, and increases in attention-related parietal cortex neural responses when implementing attention regulation of negative self-beliefs. Changes in attention regulation during MBSR may be an important psychological factor that helps to explain how mindfulness meditation training benefits patients with anxiety disorders.

View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nss054

View details for Web of Science ID 000313649700009

View details for PubMedID 22586252
Can Emotion Regulation Change Political Attitudes in Intractable Conflicts? From the Laboratory to the Field PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Halperin, E., Porat, R., Tamir, M., Gross, J. J. 2013; 24 (1): 106-111
Abstract

We hypothesized that an adaptive form of emotion regulation-cognitive reappraisal-would decrease negative emotion and increase support for conflict-resolution policies. In Study 1, Israeli participants were invited to a laboratory session in which they were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-reappraisal condition or a control condition; they were then presented with anger-inducing information related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Participants in the reappraisal condition were more supportive of conciliatory policies and less supportive of aggressive policies compared with participants in the control condition. In Study 2, we replicated these findings in responses to a real political event (the recent Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition). When assessed 1 week after training, participants trained in cognitive reappraisal showed greater support for conciliatory policies and less support for aggressive policies toward Palestinians compared with participants in a control condition. These effects persisted when participants were reassessed 5 months after training, and at both time points, negative emotion mediated the effects of reappraisal.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797612452572

View details for Web of Science ID 000315099700015

View details for PubMedID 23211565
Emotion regulation and cognition Handbook of cognition and emotion Suri, G., Sheppes, G., Gross, J. J. edited by Robinson, M. D., Watkins, E. R., Harmon-Jones, E. New York, NY: Guilford. 2013: 195–209
A Spanish Adaptation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT Cabello, R., Salguero, J. M., Fernandez-Berrocal, P., Gross, J. J. 2013; 29 (4): 234-240
View details for DOI 10.1027/1015-5759/a000150

View details for Web of Science ID 000326165900002
An emotion regulation perspective on belief change Oxford handbook of cognitive psychology Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J. edited by Reseiberg, D. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2013: 585–599
An emotion regulation perspective on belief change Oxford handbook of cognitive psychology Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J. edited by Reisberg, D. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2013
Emotion regulation Enclopedia of the mind McRae, K., Gross, J. J. edited by Pashler, H. Washington D.C.: Sage. 2013: 310–313
Oxytocin increases the willingness to socially share one’s emotions International Journal of Psychology Lane, A., Luminet, O., Rime, B., Gross, J. J., de Timary, P., Mikolajczak, M. 2013; 48: 676-681
What time can tell us The temporal dynamics of emotion regulation Conference on Changing Emotions Thiruchselvam, R., Gross, J. J. PSYCHOLOGY PRESS. 2013: 166–173
View details for Web of Science ID 000315701500023
Reappraisal mediates the link between 5-HTTLPR and social anxiety symptoms Emotion Miu, A. C., Vulturar, R., Chis, A., Ungureanu, L., Gross, J. J. 2013; 6: 1012-1022
Emotion regulation in close relationships The Oxford handbook of close relationships English, T., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. edited by Simpson, J. A., Campbell, L. Oxford University Press. 2013: 500–513
Affective disturbance and psychopathology: An emotion regulation perspective Journal of Experimental Psychopathology Jazaieri, H., Urry, H. L., Gross, J. J. 2013; 4: 584-599
Changes in positive self-views mediate the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder Clinical Psychological Science Goldin, P. R., Jazaieri, H., Ziv, M., Kraemer, J., Heimberg, R., Gross, J. J. 2013; 1: 301-310
Conceptualizing emotional labor: An emotion regulation perspective Emotional labor in the 21st century: Diverse perspectives on the psychology of emotion regulation at work Gross, J. J. edited by Grandey, A. A., Diefendorff, J. M., Rupp, D. E. New York, NY: Psychology Press/Routledge. 2013: 288–294
Responding to trauma and loss: An emotion regulation perspective The resilience handbook: Approaches to stress and trauma Boden, M. T., Kulkarni, M., Shurick, A., Bonn-Miller, M., Gross, J. J. edited by Kent, M., Davis, M. C., Reich, J. W. Routledge: New York. 2013: 86–99
Emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder: behavioral and neural responses to three socio-emotional tasks. Biology of mood & anxiety disorders Ziv, M., Goldin, P. R., Jazaieri, H., Hahn, K. S., Gross, J. J. 2013; 3 (1): 20-?
Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is thought to involve deficits in emotion regulation, and more specifically, deficits in cognitive reappraisal. However, evidence for such deficits is mixed.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal, we examined reappraisal-related behavioral and neural responses in 27 participants with generalized SAD and 27 healthy controls (HC) during three socio-emotional tasks: (1) looming harsh faces (Faces); (2) videotaped actors delivering social criticism (Criticism); and (3) written autobiographical negative self-beliefs (Beliefs).Behaviorally, compared to HC, participants with SAD had lesser reappraisal-related reduction in negative emotion in the Beliefs task. Neurally, compared to HC, participants with SAD had lesser BOLD responses in reappraisal-related brain regions when reappraising faces, in visual and attention related regions when reappraising criticism, and in the left superior temporal gyrus when reappraising beliefs. Examination of the temporal dynamics of BOLD responses revealed late reappraisal-related increased responses in HC, compared to SAD. In addition, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), which showed reappraisal-related increased activity in both groups, had similar temporal dynamics in SAD and HC during the Faces and Criticism tasks, but greater late response increases in HC, compared to SAD, during the Beliefs task. Reappraisal-related greater late DMPFC responses were associated with greater percent reduction in negative emotion ratings in SAD patients.These results suggest a dysfunction of cognitive reappraisal in SAD patients, with overall reduced late brain responses in prefrontal regions, particularly when reappraising faces. Decreased late activity in the DMPFC might be associated with deficient reappraisal and greater negative reactivity.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00380731.

View details for DOI 10.1186/2045-5380-3-20

View details for PubMedID 24517388
Is there less to social anxiety than meets the eye? Behavioral and neural responses to three socio-emotional tasks. Biology of mood & anxiety disorders Ziv, M., Goldin, P. R., Jazaieri, H., Hahn, K. S., Gross, J. J. 2013; 3 (1): 5-?
Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is widely thought to be characterized by heightened behavioral and limbic reactivity to socio-emotional stimuli. However, although behavioral findings are clear, neural findings are surprisingly mixed.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined behavioral and brain responses in a priori emotion generative regions of interest (amygdala and insula) in 67 patients with generalized SAD and in 28 healthy controls (HC) during three distinct socio-emotional tasks. We administered these socio-emotional tasks during one fMRI scanning session: 1) looming harsh faces (Faces); 2) videotaped actors delivering social criticism (Criticism); and 3) written negative self-beliefs (Beliefs).In each task, SAD patients reported heightened negative emotion, compared to HC. There were, however, no SAD versus HC differential brain responses in the amygdala and insula. Between-group whole-brain analyses confirmed no group differences in the responses of the amygdala and insula, and indicated different brain networks activated during each of the tasks. In SAD participants, social anxiety symptom severity was associated with increased BOLD signal in the left insula during the Faces task.The similar responses in amygdala and insula in SAD and HC participants suggest that heightened negative emotion responses reported by patients with SAD may be related to dysfunction in higher cognitive processes (e.g., distorted appraisal, attention biases, or ineffective cognitive reappraisal). In addition, the findings of this study emphasize the differential effects of socio-emotional experimental tasks.

View details for DOI 10.1186/2045-5380-3-5

View details for PubMedID 23448192
Emotional reactivity and regulation in panic disorder: insights from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study of cognitive behavioral therapy. Biological psychiatry Shurick, A. A., Gross, J. J. 2013; 73 (1): 5-6
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.10.008

View details for PubMedID 23217459
Emotion regulation and peer-rated social functioning: A 4-year longitudinal study JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY English, T., John, O. P., Srivastava, S., Gross, J. J. 2012; 46 (6): 780-784
Abstract

Different emotion regulation strategies have been linked to distinct social outcomes, but only concurrently or in the short-term. The present research employed a four-year longitudinal design with peer-reported measures of social functioning to examine the long-term social effects of emotion regulation. Individual differences in suppression before entering college predicted weaker social connections (e.g., less close relationships) at the end of college, whereas reappraisal predicted stronger social connections and more favorable sociometric standing (e.g., higher social status). These effects of emotion regulation remained intact even when controlling for baseline social functioning and Big Five personality traits. These findings suggest that individual differences in the use of particular emotion regulation strategies have an enduring impact, shaping the individual's social environment over time.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jrp.2012.09.006

View details for Web of Science ID 000312626100018

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3587109
Experiential Versus Analytical Emotion Regulation and Sleep: Breaking the Link Between Negative Events and Sleep Disturbance EMOTION Vandekerckhove, M., Kestemont, J., Weiss, R., Schotte, C., Exadaktylos, V., Haex, B., Verbraecken, J., Gross, J. J. 2012; 12 (6): 1415-1421
Abstract

Despite a long history of interest in emotion regulation as well as in the mechanisms that regulate sleep, the relationship between emotion regulation and sleep is not yet well understood. The present study investigated whether "an experiential approach"-defined by coping through affectively acknowledging, understanding, and expressing actual emotional experience and affective feeling about a situation-compared with a "cognitive analytical approach"-defined by the cognitive analysis of the causes, meanings and implications of the situation for the own self-would buffer the impact of an emotional failure experience on (1) emotional experience and (2) sleep structure assessed by EEG polysomnography. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers participated in this study. A direct comparison of the two emotion regulation strategies revealed that participants who were instructed to apply an experiential approach showed less fragmentation of sleep than participants who were instructed to apply an analytical approach. The use of an experiential approach resulted in a longer sleep time, higher sleep efficiency, fewer awakenings, less % time awake, and fewer minutes wake after sleep onset. Implications of the differential effects of these two forms of emotion regulation on sleep are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0028501

View details for Web of Science ID 000311878700029

View details for PubMedID 22775124
Social Coping by Masking? Parental Support and Peer Victimization as Mediators of the Relationship Between Depressive Symptoms and Expressive Suppression in Adolescents JOURNAL OF YOUTH AND ADOLESCENCE Larsen, J. K., Vermulst, A. A., Eisinga, R., English, T., Gross, J. J., Hofman, E., Scholte, R. H., Engels, R. C. 2012; 41 (12): 1628-1642
Abstract

Expressive suppression is regarded as a generally ineffective emotion regulation strategy and appears to be associated with the development of depressive symptoms among adolescents. However, the mechanisms linking suppression to depressive symptoms are not well understood. The main aim of this study was to examine two potential mediators of the prospective relationship from depressive symptoms to expressive suppression among adolescents: parental support and peer victimization. Structural equation modelling was used to construct a three-wave cross-lagged model (n = 2,051 adolescents, 48.5 % female, at baseline; 1,465 with data at all three time points) with all possible longitudinal linkages. Depressive symptoms preceded decreases in perceived parental support 1 year later. Decreases in parental support mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and increases in expressive suppression over a 2-year period. Multi-group analyses show that the mediation model tested was significant for girls, but not for boys. No evidence for other mediating models was found. Although initial suppression preceded increases in depressive symptoms 1 year later, we did not find any evidence for the reversed link from suppression to depressive symptoms. Clear evidence for a reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and parental support was found. However, only limited and inconsistent support was found for a reciprocal relationship between depressive symptoms and peer victimization. Finally, although some evidence for a unidirectional relationship from parental support to increases in suppression was found, no significant prospective relationship was found between peer victimization and suppression. The implications of our clear results for parental support, and mostly lacking results for peer victimization, are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1007/s10964-012-9782-7

View details for Web of Science ID 000310871800007

View details for PubMedID 22739935
Promoting Intergroup Contact by Changing Beliefs: Group Malleability, Intergroup Anxiety, and Contact Motivation EMOTION Halperin, E., Crisp, R. J., Husnu, S., Trzesniewski, K. H., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J. 2012; 12 (6): 1192-1195
Abstract

Intergroup contact plays a crucial role in moderating long-term conflicts. Unfortunately, the motivation to make contact with outgroup members is usually very low in such conflicts. We hypothesized that one limiting factor is the belief that groups cannot change, which leads to increased intergroup anxiety and decreased contact motivation. To test this hypothesis, we experimentally manipulated beliefs about group malleability in the context of the conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and then assessed intergroup anxiety and motivation to engage in intergroup contact. Turkish Cypriots who were led to believe that groups can change (with no mention of the specific groups involved) reported lower levels of intergroup anxiety and higher motivation to interact and communicate with Greek Cypriots in the future, compared with those who were led to believe that groups cannot change. This effect of group malleability manipulation on contact motivation was mediated by intergroup anxiety.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0028620

View details for Web of Science ID 000311878700003

View details for PubMedID 22642339
Trait Rumination is Associated with Enhanced Recollection of Negative Words COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH Kuo, J. R., Edge, I. G., Ramel, W., Edge, M. D., Drabant, E. M., Dayton, W. M., Gross, J. J. 2012; 36 (6): 722-730
View details for DOI 10.1007/s10608-011-9430-7

View details for Web of Science ID 000310741700013
Looking Inward: Shifting Attention Within Working Memory Representations Alters Emotional Responses PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Thiruchselvam, R., Hajcak, G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 23 (12): 1461-1466
Abstract

Selective attention plays a fundamental role in emotion regulation. To date, research has examined individuals' use of selective attention to regulate emotional responses during stimulus presentation. In the present study, we examined whether selective attention can be used to regulate emotional responses during a poststimulus period when representations are active within working memory (WM). On each trial, participants viewed either a negative or a neutral image. After the offset of the image, they maintained a representation of it in WM and were cued to focus their attention on either neutral or arousing aspects of that representation. Results showed that, relative to focusing on an arousing portion of a negative-image representation within WM, focusing on a neutral portion of the representation reduced both self-reported negative emotion and the late positive potential, a robust neural measure of emotional reactivity. These data suggest that selective attention can alter emotional responses arising from affective representations active within WM.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797612449838

View details for Web of Science ID 000314502600004

View details for PubMedID 23137969
The effects of acceptance and suppression on anticipation and receipt of painful stimulation JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOR THERAPY AND EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHIATRY Braams, B. R., Blechert, J., Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J. 2012; 43 (4): 1014-1018
Abstract

Previous research has found that in some contexts, suppression increases distress, whereas acceptance decreases distress. It is not clear, however, whether these two common forms of emotion regulation have comparable or divergent physiological and behavioral effects during the anticipation and receipt of a painful stimulus.To address this issue, we randomized participants to suppression, acceptance, or no instruction control groups, and assessed their cardiovascular and behavioral responses while they anticipated and then received electric shocks.Findings revealed that compared to the control condition (1) acceptance and suppression led to comparable reductions in pain reports and cardiac defense responses; and (2) acceptance led to greater reductions in reports of anticipatory anxiety than suppression.The current study tested only two emotion regulation techniques in the context of a pain-inducing stimulus that has limited ecological validity.In contrast to previous research, we found that both acceptance and suppression are effective in reducing pain and anxiety in response to experimentally induced pain.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jbtep.2012.04.001

View details for Web of Science ID 000306625200006

View details for PubMedID 22580070
Durable Effects of Cognitive Restructuring on Conditioned Fear EMOTION Shurick, A. A., Hamilton, J. R., Harris, L. T., Roy, A. K., Gross, J. J., Phelps, E. A. 2012; 12 (6): 1393-1397
Abstract

Studies of cognitive reappraisal have demonstrated that reinterpreting a stimulus can alter emotional responding, yet few studies have examined the durable effects associated with reinterpretation-based emotion regulation strategies. Evidence for the enduring effects of emotion regulation may be found in clinical studies that use cognitive restructuring (CR) techniques in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to alleviate anxiety. These techniques are based on cognitive theories of anxiety that suggest these disorders arise from biased cognitions; therefore, changing a person's thoughts will elicit durable changes in an individual's emotional responses. Despite the considerable success of CBT for anxiety disorders, durable effects associated with emotion regulation have not been thoroughly examined in the context of a laboratory paradigm. The goal of this study was to determine whether CR, a technique used in CBT and similar to cognitive reappraisal, could attenuate conditioned fear responses, and whether the effect would persist over time (24 hr). We conditioned participants using images of snakes or spiders that were occasionally paired with a mild shock to the wrist while we obtained subjective fear reports and electrodermal activity (EDA). After conditioning, half of the participants were randomly assigned to CR training aimed at decreasing their emotional response to the shock and the conditioned stimuli, while the other half received no such training. All participants returned 24 hr later to repeat the conditioning session. Compared with control participants, CR participants demonstrated a reduction in fear and EDA across sessions. These findings suggest that CR has durable effects on fear responding.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0029143

View details for Web of Science ID 000311878700026

View details for PubMedID 22775125
Cognitive Reappraisal Self-Efficacy Mediates the Effects of Individual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder JOURNAL OF CONSULTING AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Goldin, P. R., Ziv, M., Jazaieri, H., Werner, K., Kraemer, H., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 80 (6): 1034-1040
Abstract

To examine whether changes in cognitive reappraisal self-efficacy (CR-SE) mediate the effects of individually administered cognitive-behavioral therapy (I-CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD) on severity of social anxiety symptoms.A randomized controlled trial in which 75 adult patients (21-55 years of age; 53% male; 57% Caucasian) with a principal diagnosis of generalized SAD were randomly assigned to 16 sessions of I-CBT (n = 38) or a wait-list control (WL) group (n = 37). All patients completed self-report inventories measuring CR-SE and social anxiety symptoms at baseline and post-I-CBT/post-WL, and I-CBT completers were also assessed at 1-year posttreatment.Compared with WL, I-CBT resulted in greater increases in CR-SE and greater decreases in social anxiety. Increases in CR-SE during I-CBT mediated the effect of I-CBT on social anxiety. Gains achieved by patients receiving I-CBT were maintained 1-year posttreatment, and I-CBT-related increases in CR-SE were also associated with reduction in social anxiety at the 1-year follow-up.Increasing CR-SE may be an important mechanism by which I-CBT for SAD produces both immediate and long-term reductions in social anxiety.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0028555

View details for Web of Science ID 000311817500007

View details for PubMedID 22582765

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3424305
Age-Related Differences in Emotional Reactivity, Regulation, and Rejection Sensitivity in Adolescence EMOTION Silvers, J. A., McRae, K., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J., Remy, K. A., Ochsner, K. N. 2012; 12 (6): 1235-1247
Abstract

Although adolescents' emotional lives are thought to be more turbulent than those of adults, it is unknown whether this difference is attributable to developmental changes in emotional reactivity or emotion regulation. Study 1 addressed this question by presenting healthy individuals aged 10-23 with negative and neutral pictures and asking them to respond naturally or use cognitive reappraisal to down-regulate their responses on a trial-by-trial basis. Results indicated that age exerted both linear and quadratic effects on regulation success but was unrelated to emotional reactivity. Study 2 replicated and extended these findings using a different reappraisal task and further showed that situational (i.e., social vs. nonsocial stimuli) and dispositional (i.e., level of rejection sensitivity) social factors interacted with age to predict regulation success: young adolescents were less successful at regulating responses to social than to nonsocial stimuli, particularly if the adolescents were high in rejection sensitivity. Taken together, these results have important implications for the inclusion of emotion regulation in models of emotional and cognitive development.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0028297

View details for Web of Science ID 000311878700009

View details for PubMedID 22642356
Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction versus aerobic exercise: effects on the self-referential brain network in social anxiety disorder FRONTIERS IN HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE Goldin, P., Ziv, M., Jazaieri, H., Gross, J. J. 2012; 6
Abstract

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by distorted self-views. The goal of this study was to examine whether mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) alters behavioral and brain measures of negative and positive self-views. Methods: Fifty-six adult patients with generalized SAD were randomly assigned to MBSR or a comparison aerobic exercise (AE) program. A self-referential encoding task was administered at baseline and post-intervention to examine changes in behavioral and neural responses in the self-referential brain network during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were cued to decide whether positive and negative social trait adjectives were self-descriptive or in upper case font. Results: Behaviorally, compared to AE, MBSR produced greater decreases in negative self-views, and equivalent increases in positive self-views. Neurally, during negative self versus case, compared to AE, MBSR led to increased brain responses in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). There were no differential changes for positive self versus case. Secondary analyses showed that changes in endorsement of negative and positive self-views were associated with decreased social anxiety symptom severity for MBSR, but not AE. Additionally, MBSR-related increases in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) activity during negative self-view versus case were associated with decreased social anxiety related disability and increased mindfulness. Analysis of neural temporal dynamics revealed MBSR-related changes in the timing of neural responses in the DMPFC and PCC for negative self-view versus case. Conclusion: These findings suggest that MBSR attenuates maladaptive habitual self-views by facilitating automatic (i.e., uninstructed) recruitment of cognitive and attention regulation neural networks. This highlights potentially important links between self-referential and cognitive-attention regulation systems and suggests that MBSR may enhance more adaptive social self-referential processes in patients with SAD.

View details for DOI 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00295

View details for Web of Science ID 000311226900001

View details for PubMedID 23133411
Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Sherman, G. D., Lee, J. J., Cuddy, A. J., Renshon, J., Oveis, C., Gross, J. J., Lerner, J. S. 2012; 109 (44): 17903-17907
Abstract

As leaders ascend to more powerful positions in their groups, they face ever-increasing demands. As a result, there is a common perception that leaders have higher stress levels than nonleaders. However, if leaders also experience a heightened sense of control--a psychological factor known to have powerful stress-buffering effects--leadership should be associated with reduced stress levels. Using unique samples of real leaders, including military officers and government officials, we found that, compared with nonleaders, leaders had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower reports of anxiety (study 1). In study 2, leaders holding more powerful positions exhibited lower cortisol levels and less anxiety than leaders holding less powerful positions, a relationship explained significantly by their greater sense of control. Altogether, these findings reveal a clear relationship between leadership and stress, with leadership level being inversely related to stress.

View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1207042109

View details for Web of Science ID 000311149900050

View details for PubMedID 23012416
The Stranger Effect: The Rejection of Affective Deviants PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Szczurek, L., Monin, B., Gross, J. J. 2012; 23 (10): 1105-1111
Abstract

What happens when affective displays deviate from normative expectations? In this study, participants evaluated target individuals displaying flat, incongruent, or congruent expressions seemingly in response to pictures eliciting positive, neutral, or negative affect. Relative to targets who displayed normative reactions, those who violated affective norms (affective deviants) were rated more negatively on various dimensions of social judgment. Participants also preferred greater social distance from affective deviants, reported more moral outrage in response to them, and inferred that these targets did not share their moral values. Incongruent affect resulted in more negative social judgment than did flat affect, and this relationship was moderated by stimulus valence. Finally, the relationship between targets' affective expressions and participants' avoidant intentions was mediated by the extent to which participants thought the targets shared their moral values. These findings demonstrate the interpersonal costs of affective deviance, revealing the pervasiveness and force of affective norms.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797612445314

View details for Web of Science ID 000314499600008

View details for PubMedID 22961772
When Trying Is Not Enough: Emotion Regulation and the Effort-Success Gap in Bipolar Disorder EMOTION Gruber, J., Harvey, A. G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 12 (5): 997-1003
Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is presumed to involve difficulties in emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about the specific emotion regulation profile associated with this disorder. The present study examined the use of specific emotion regulation strategies among individuals with BD (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 38). Participants' spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, as well as their associated effort and success at regulating their emotions, was measured in the context of three emotionally evocative films (neutral, happy, sad). Results indicated that the BD participants made greater use of spontaneous suppression and reappraisal across all films compared to the control group. BD participants also reported greater effort, but less success, when spontaneously regulating emotions. These findings suggest that bipolar disorder is associated with less success when regulating emotions despite a widespread engagement of regulatory efforts. Discussion focuses on the disjunction between troubled emotion functioning in bipolar disorder and sustained efforts to modify intense emotions.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0026822

View details for Web of Science ID 000309946200018

View details for PubMedID 22251049
You don't like me, do you? Enhanced ERP responses to averted eye gaze in social anxiety BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Schmitz, J., Scheel, C. N., Rigon, A., Gross, J. J., Blechert, J. 2012; 91 (2): 263-269
Abstract

Social anxiety is associated with an attentional bias toward angry and fearful faces, along with an enhanced processing of faces per se. However, little is known about the processing of gaze direction, a subtle but important social cue. Participants with high or low social anxiety (HSA/LSA) observed eye pairs with direct or averted gaze while subjective ratings and event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured. Behaviorally, all participants rated averted gaze as more unpleasant than direct gaze. Neurally, only HSA participants showed a trend for higher P100 amplitudes to averted gaze and significantly enhanced processing at late latencies (Late positive potential [LPP]), indicative of a specific processing bias for averted gaze. Furthermore, HSA individuals showed enhanced processing of both direct and averted gaze relative to the LSA group at intermediate latencies (Early posterior negativity [EPN]). Both general and specific attentional biases play a role in social anxiety. Averted gaze--potential sign of disinterest--deserves more attention in the attentional bias literature.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.07.004

View details for Web of Science ID 000310418600012

View details for PubMedID 22820039
Cognitive Regulation during Decision Making Shifts Behavioral Control between Ventromedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Value Systems JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE Hutcherson, C. A., Plassmann, H., Gross, J. J., Rangel, A. 2012; 32 (39): 13543-13554
Abstract

Cognitive regulation is often used to influence behavioral outcomes. However, the computational and neurobiological mechanisms by which it affects behavior remain unknown. We studied this issue using an fMRI task in which human participants used cognitive regulation to upregulate and downregulate their cravings for foods at the time of choice. We found that activity in both ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) correlated with value. We also found evidence that two distinct regulatory mechanisms were at work: value modulation, which operates by changing the values assigned to foods in vmPFC and dlPFC at the time of choice, and behavioral control modulation, which operates by changing the relative influence of the vmPFC and dlPFC value signals on the action selection process used to make choices. In particular, during downregulation, activation decreased in the value-sensitive region of dlPFC (indicating value modulation) but not in vmPFC, and the relative contribution of the two value signals to behavior shifted toward the dlPFC (indicating behavioral control modulation). The opposite pattern was observed during upregulation: activation increased in vmPFC but not dlPFC, and the relative contribution to behavior shifted toward the vmPFC. Finally, ventrolateral PFC and posterior parietal cortex were more active during both upregulation and downregulation, and were functionally connected with vmPFC and dlPFC during cognitive regulation, which suggests that they help to implement the changes to the decision-making circuitry generated by cognitive regulation.

View details for DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6387-11.2012

View details for Web of Science ID 000309506300024

View details for PubMedID 23015444
Emotion regulation and successful aging TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES Suri, G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 16 (8): 409-410
Abstract

Despite normative declines in old age, healthy elderly typically report surprisingly high levels of well-being. It is not clear why this is so. A study by Brassen and colleagues suggests that one factor may be reduced responsiveness to regret. These findings highlight the role of emotion regulation in successful aging.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.007

View details for Web of Science ID 000307696400007

View details for PubMedID 22739000
Emotion Regulation in Asperger's Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism EMOTION Samson, A. C., Huber, O., Gross, J. J. 2012; 12 (4): 659-665
Abstract

It is generally thought that individuals with Asperger's syndrome and high-functioning autism (AS/HFA) have deficits in theory of mind. These deficits have been previously linked to problems with social cognition. However, we reasoned that AS/HFA individuals' Theory of Mind deficits also might lead to problems with emotion regulation. To assess emotional functioning in AS/HFA, 27 AS/HFA adults (16 women) and 27 age-, gender-, and education-matched typically developing (TD) participants completed a battery of measures of emotion experience, labeling, and regulation. With respect to emotion experience, individuals with AS/HFA reported higher levels of negative emotions, but similar levels of positive emotions, compared with TD individuals. With respect to emotion labeling, individuals with AS/HFA had greater difficulties identifying and describing their emotions, with approximately two-thirds exceeding the cutoff for alexithymia. With respect to emotion regulation, individuals with AS/HFA used reappraisal less frequently than TD individuals and reported lower levels of reappraisal self-efficacy. Although AS/HFA individuals used suppression more frequently than TD individuals, no difference in suppression self-efficacy was found. It is important to note that these differences in emotion regulation were evident even when controlling for emotion experience and labeling. Implications of these deficits are discussed, and future research directions are proposed.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0027975

View details for Web of Science ID 000307085800001

View details for PubMedID 22642342
Lead Me Not into Temptation: Using Cognitive Reappraisal to Reduce Goal Inconsistent Behavior PLOS ONE Leroy, V., Gregoire, J., Magen, E., Gross, J. J., Mikolajczak, M. 2012; 7 (7)
Abstract

Temptations besiege us, and we must resist their appeal if we are to achieve our long-term goals. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that cognitive reappraisal could be used to successfully maintain performance in a task embedded in temptation. In Study 1, 62 participants had to search for information on the Internet while resisting attractive task-irrelevant content on preselected sites. In Study 2, 58 participants had to count target words in a funny TV sequence. Compared to the no-reappraisal condition, participants who understood the situation as a test of willpower (the reappraisal condition) (1) performed better at the task (Studies 1 and 2), and (2) were less tempted by the attractive content of the TV sequence (Study 2). These findings suggest that, by making the temptation less attractive and the task more appealing, cognitive reappraisal can help us resist temptation.

View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0039493

View details for Web of Science ID 000306751300005

View details for PubMedID 22911686
A Randomized Trial of MBSR Versus Aerobic Exercise for Social Anxiety Disorder JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., Werner, K., Ziv, M., Gross, J. J. 2012; 68 (7): 715-731
Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Effective treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD) exist, but additional treatment options are needed for nonresponders as well as those who are either unable or unwilling to engage in traditional treatments. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is one nontraditional treatment that has demonstrated efficacy in treating other mood and anxiety disorders, and preliminary data suggest its efficacy in SAD as well. METHOD: Fifty-six adults (52% female; 41% Caucasian; age mean [M] ± standard deviation [SD]: 32.8 ± 8.4) with SAD were randomized to MBSR or an active comparison condition, aerobic exercise (AE). At baseline and post-intervention, participants completed measures of clinical symptoms (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and Perceived Stress Scale) and subjective well-being (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, and UCLA-8 Loneliness Scale). At 3 months post-intervention, a subset of these measures was readministered. For clinical significance analyses, 48 healthy adults (52.1% female; 56.3% Caucasian; age [M ± SD]: 33.9 ± 9.8) were recruited. MBSR and AE participants were also compared with a separate untreated group of 29 adults (44.8% female; 48.3% Caucasian; age [M ± SD]: 32.3 ± 9.4) with generalized SAD who completed assessments over a comparable time period with no intervening treatment. RESULTS: A 2 (Group) x 2 (Time) repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) on measures of clinical symptoms and well-being were conducted to examine pre-intervention to post-intervention and pre-intervention to 3-month follow-up. Both MBSR and AE were associated with reductions in social anxiety and depression and increases in subjective well-being, both immediately post-intervention and at 3 months post-intervention. When participants in the randomized controlled trial were compared with the untreated SAD group, participants in both interventions exhibited improvements on measures of clinical symptoms and well-being. CONCLUSION: Nontraditional interventions such as MBSR and AE merit further exploration as alternative or complementary treatments for SAD.

View details for DOI 10.1002/jclp.21863

View details for Web of Science ID 000305293300001
Psychometric Evaluation of the Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale in Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT Weeks, J. W., Heimberg, R. G., Rodebaugh, T. L., Goldin, P. R., Gross, J. J. 2012; 24 (2): 301-312
Abstract

The Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale (FPES; J. W. Weeks, R. G. Heimberg, & T. L. Rodebaugh, 2008) was designed to assess fear of positive evaluation, a proposed cognitive component of social anxiety. Although previous findings on the psychometric properties of the FPES have been highly encouraging, only 1 previous study has examined the psychometric profile of the FPES in a sample of patients with social anxiety disorder (T. A. Fergus et al., 2009). The primary purpose of the present study was to conduct a large multisite examination of the psychometric profile of the FPES among patients with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (n = 226; generalized subtype = 97.8%). Responses of nonanxious control participants (n = 42) were also examined. The factorial validity, internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and treatment sensitivity of the FPES were strongly supported by our findings. Furthermore, an FPES cutoff score was identified for distinguishing levels of fear of positive evaluation characteristic of patients with social anxiety disorder from those characteristic of the control group. Results provide additional support for the psychometric properties of the FPES in clinical samples.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0025723

View details for Web of Science ID 000304842200004

View details for PubMedID 21966932
The role of maladaptive beliefs in cognitive-behavioral therapy: Evidence from social anxiety disorder BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH AND THERAPY Boden, M. T., John, O. P., Goldin, P. R., Werner, K., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 50 (5): 287-291
Abstract

Beliefs that are negatively biased, inaccurate, and rigid are thought to play a key role in the mood and anxiety disorders. Our goal in this study was to examine whether a change in maladaptive beliefs mediated the outcome of individual cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD). In a sample of 47 individuals with SAD receiving CBT, we measured maladaptive interpersonal beliefs as well as emotional and behavioral components of social anxiety, both at baseline and after treatment completion. We found that (a) maladaptive interpersonal beliefs were associated with social anxiety at baseline and treatment completion; (b) maladaptive interpersonal beliefs were significantly reduced from baseline to treatment completion; and (c) treatment-related reductions in maladaptive interpersonal beliefs fully accounted for reductions in social anxiety after CBT. These results extend the literature by providing support for cognitive models of mental disorders, broadly, and SAD, specifically.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2012.02.007

View details for Web of Science ID 000303637200003

View details for PubMedID 22445947
See What You Think: Reappraisal Modulates Behavioral and Neural Responses to Social Stimuli PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Blechert, J., Sheppes, G., Di Tella, C., Williams, H., Gross, J. J. 2012; 23 (4): 346-353
Abstract

The social environment requires people to quickly form contextually appropriate social evaluations. Models of social cognition suggest that this ability depends on the interaction of automatic and controlled evaluative systems. However, controlled processes, such as reappraisal of an initial response, have rarely been studied in the context of social evaluation. In the two studies reported here, participants reappraised or simply observed angry or neutral faces. In Study 1, reappraisal modulated evaluations of angry faces on explicit as well as implicit behavioral levels. In Study 2, reappraisal altered both early and late phases of evaluative electrocortical processing. These studies suggest that controlled processes, such as reappraisal, can quickly and substantially modulate early evaluative processes in the context of biologically significant social stimuli.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797612438559

View details for Web of Science ID 000303209300002

View details for PubMedID 22431908
Neural Mechanisms Underlying 5-HTTLPR-Related Sensitivity to Acute Stress AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY Drabant, E. M., Ramel, W., Edge, M. D., Hyde, L. W., Kuo, J. R., Goldin, P. R., Hariri, A. R., Gross, J. J. 2012; 169 (4): 397-405
Abstract

Many studies have shown that 5-HTTLPR genotype interacts with exposure to stress in conferring risk for psychopathology. However, the specific neural mechanisms through which this gene-by-environment interaction confers risk remain largely unknown, and no study to date has directly examined the modulatory effects of 5-HTTLPR on corticolimbic circuit responses during exposure to acute stress.An acute laboratory stressor was administered to 51 healthy women during blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging. In this task, participants were threatened with electric shocks of uncertain intensity, which were unpredictably delivered to the wrist after a long anticipatory cue period of unpredictable duration.Relative to women carrying the L allele, those with the SS genotype showed enhanced activation during threat anticipation in a network of regions, including the amygdala, hippocampus, anterior insula, thalamus, pulvinar, caudate, precuneus, anterior cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex. Individuals with the SS genotype also displayed enhanced positive coupling between medial prefrontal cortex activation and anxiety experience, whereas enhanced negative coupling between insula activation and perceived success at regulating anxiety was observed in individuals carrying the L allele.These findings suggest that during stress exposure, neural systems that enhance fear and arousal, modulate attention toward threat, and perseverate on emotional salience of the threat may be engaged preferentially in individuals with the SS genotype. This may be one mechanism underlying the risk for psychopathology conferred by the S allele upon exposure to life stressors.

View details for DOI 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10111699

View details for Web of Science ID 000302115400010

View details for PubMedID 22362395
Unpacking Cognitive Reappraisal: Goals, Tactics, and Outcomes EMOTION McRae, K., Ciesielski, B., Gross, J. J. 2012; 12 (2): 250-255
Abstract

Studies of emotion regulation typically contrast two or more strategies (e.g., reappraisal vs. suppression) and ignore variation within each strategy. To address such variation, we focused on cognitive reappraisal and considered the effects of goals (i.e., what people are trying to achieve) and tactics (i.e., what people actually do) on outcomes (i.e., how affective responses change). To examine goals, we randomly assigned participants to either increase positive emotion or decrease negative emotion to a negative stimulus. To examine tactics, we categorized participants' reports of how they reappraised. To examine reappraisal outcomes, we measured experience and electrodermal responding. Findings indicated that (a) the goal of increasing positive emotion led to greater increases in positive affect and smaller decreases in skin conductance than the goal of decreasing negative emotion, and (b) use of the reality challenge tactic was associated with smaller increases in positive affect during reappraisal. These findings suggest that reappraisal can be implemented in the service of different emotion goals, using different tactics. Such differences are associated with different outcomes, and they should be considered in future research and applied attempts to maximize reappraisal success.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0026351

View details for Web of Science ID 000302200000009

View details for PubMedID 22148990
Resisting the sirens of temptation while studying: Using reappraisal to increase focus, enthusiasm, and performance LEARNING AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Leroy, V., Gregoire, J., Magen, E., Gross, J. J., Mikolajczak, M. 2012; 22 (2): 263-268
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.lindif.2011.10.003

View details for Web of Science ID 000301691200012
Bottom-up and top-down emotion generation: implications for emotion regulation SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE McRae, K., Misra, S., Prasad, A. K., Pereira, S. C., Gross, J. J. 2012; 7 (3): 253-262
Abstract

Emotion regulation plays a crucial role in adaptive functioning and mounting evidence suggests that some emotion regulation strategies are often more effective than others. However, little attention has been paid to the different ways emotions can be generated: from the 'bottom-up' (in response to inherently emotional perceptual properties of the stimulus) or 'top-down' (in response to cognitive evaluations). Based on a process priming principle, we hypothesized that mode of emotion generation would interact with subsequent emotion regulation. Specifically, we predicted that top-down emotions would be more successfully regulated by a top-down regulation strategy than bottom-up emotions. To test this hypothesis, we induced bottom-up and top-down emotions, and asked participants to decrease the negative impact of these emotions using cognitive reappraisal. We observed the predicted interaction between generation and regulation in two measures of emotional responding. As measured by self-reported affect, cognitive reappraisal was more successful on top-down generated emotions than bottom-up generated emotions. Neurally, reappraisal of bottom-up generated emotions resulted in a paradoxical increase of amygdala activity. This interaction between mode of emotion generation and subsequent regulation should be taken into account when comparing of the efficacy of different types of emotion regulation, as well as when reappraisal is used to treat different types of clinical disorders.

View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nsq103

View details for Web of Science ID 000302810100001

View details for PubMedID 21296865
Individual differences in reappraisal ability: Links to reappraisal frequency, well-being, and cognitive control JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY McRae, K., Jacobs, S. E., Ray, R. D., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2012; 46 (1): 2-7
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jrp.2011.10.003

View details for Web of Science ID 000301685500001
The interactive effects of emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS Boden, M. T., Bonn-Miller, M. O., Kashdan, T. B., Alvarez, J., Gross, J. J. 2012; 26 (1): 233-238
Abstract

The goal of this investigation was to examine how emotional clarity and a specific emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, interact to predict Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and positive affect among treatment seeking military Veterans (N=75, 93% male) diagnosed with PTSD. PTSD is a highly relevant context because PTSD features include heightened stress reactivity, diminished ability to differentiate and understand emotions, and reliance on maladaptive forms of emotion regulation. We found that the combination of high levels of emotional clarity and frequent use of cognitive reappraisal were associated with (a) lesser total PTSD severity after accounting for shared variance with positive affect and the extent to which emotions are attended to (attention to emotions), and (b) greater positive affect after accounting for shared variance with total PTSD severity and attention to emotions. This is the first study to demonstrate interactive effects of emotional clarity and cognitive reappraisal.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.11.007

View details for Web of Science ID 000299361800030

View details for PubMedID 22169054
What good are emotions, anyway? Should I strap a battery to my head? (and other questions about emotion) Suri, G., Gross, J. J. edited by Totterdell, P., Niven, K. Charleston, VA: Createspace Independent Publishing. 2012: 9–17
Selfcompassion and social anxiety disorder Anxiety, Stress, & Coping Werener, K. H., Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., Ziv, M., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 25: 543-558
View details for DOI 10.1080/10615806.2011.608842
Selection, optimization, and compensation in the domain of emotion regulation: Applications to adolescence, older age, and major depressive disorder. Social and Personality Psychology Compass Opitz, P., Gross, J. J., Urry, H. L. 2012; 6: 142-155
Sleep quality and neural circuit function supporting emotion regulation. Biology of mood & anxiety disorders Minkel, J. D., McNealy, K., Gianaros, P. J., Drabant, E. M., Gross, J. J., Manuck, S. B., Hariri, A. R. 2012; 2 (1): 22-?
Abstract

Recent laboratory studies employing an extended sleep deprivation model have mapped sleep-related changes in behavior onto functional alterations in specific brain regions supporting emotion, suggesting possible biological mechanisms for an association between sleep difficulties and deficits in emotion regulation. However, it is not yet known if similar behavioral and neural changes are associated with the more modest variability in sleep observed in daily life.We examined relationships between sleep and neural circuitry of emotion using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and fMRI data from a widely used emotion regulation task focusing on cognitive reappraisal of negative emotional stimuli in an unselected sample of 97 adult volunteers (48 women; mean age 42.78±7.37 years, range 30-54 years old).Emotion regulation was associated with greater activation in clusters located in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and inferior parietal cortex. Only one subscale from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, use of sleep medications, was related to BOLD responses in the dmPFC and dlPFC during cognitive reappraisal. Use of sleep medications predicted lesser BOLD responses during reappraisal, but other aspects of sleep, including sleep duration and subjective sleep quality, were not related to neural activation in this paradigm.The relatively modest variability in sleep that is common in the general community is unlikely to cause significant disruption in neural circuits supporting reactivity or regulation by cognitive reappraisal of negative emotion. Use of sleep medication however, may influence emotion regulation circuitry, but additional studies are necessary to determine if such use plays a causal role in altering emotional responses.

View details for DOI 10.1186/2045-5380-2-22

View details for PubMedID 23216889
The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE McRae, K., Gross, J. J., Weber, J., Robertson, E. R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R. D., Gabrieli, J. D., Ochsner, K. N. 2012; 7 (1): 11-22
Abstract

The ability to use cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions is an adaptive skill in adulthood, but little is known about its development. Because reappraisal is thought to be supported by linearly developing prefrontal regions, one prediction is that reappraisal ability develops linearly. However, recent investigations into socio-emotional development suggest that there are non-linear patterns that uniquely affect adolescents. We compared older children (10-13), adolescents (14-17) and young adults (18-22) on a task that distinguishes negative emotional reactivity from reappraisal ability. Behaviorally, we observed no age differences in self-reported emotional reactivity, but linear and quadratic relationships between reappraisal ability and age. Neurally, we observed linear age-related increases in activation in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, previously identified in adult reappraisal. We observed a quadratic pattern of activation with age in regions associated with social cognitive processes like mental state attribution (medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, anterior temporal cortex). In these regions, we observed relatively lower reactivity-related activation in adolescents, but higher reappraisal-related activation. This suggests that (i) engagement of the cognitive control components of reappraisal increases linearly with age and (ii) adolescents may not normally recruit regions associated with mental state attribution, but (iii) this can be reversed with reappraisal instructions.

View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nsr093

View details for Web of Science ID 000298891400002

View details for PubMedID 22228751
Self-compassion and social anxiety disorder ANXIETY STRESS AND COPING Werner, K. H., Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., Ziv, M., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2012; 25 (5): 543-558
Abstract

Self-compassion refers to having an accepting and caring orientation towards oneself. Although self-compassion has been studied primarily in healthy populations, one particularly compelling clinical context in which to examine self-compassion is social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD is characterized by high levels of negative self-criticism as well as an abiding concern about others' evaluation of one's performance. In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that: (1) people with SAD would demonstrate less self-compassion than healthy controls (HCs), (2) self-compassion would relate to severity of social anxiety and fear of evaluation among people with SAD, and (3) age would be negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, but not for HC. As expected, people with SAD reported less self-compassion than HCs on the Self-Compassion Scale and its subscales. Within the SAD group, lesser self-compassion was not generally associated with severity of social anxiety, but it was associated with greater fear of both negative and positive evaluation. Age was negatively correlated with self-compassion for people with SAD, whereas age was positively correlated with self-compassion for HC. These findings suggest that self-compassion may be a particularly important target for assessment and treatment in persons with SAD.

View details for DOI 10.1080/10615806.2011.608842

View details for Web of Science ID 000307643100005

View details for PubMedID 21895450
Humour as emotion regulation: The differential consequences of negative versus positive humour COGNITION & EMOTION Samson, A. C., Gross, J. J. 2012; 26 (2): 375-384
Abstract

Humour is often seen as an adaptive coping strategy; however, the empirical literature is inconclusive. One possible explanation is that different types of humour have different adaptive consequences. In the present research, we predicted that positive (good-natured) humour would be more effective at regulating negative emotions than negative (mean-spirited) humour. In Study 1, participants were shown negative pictures two times. First, they simply viewed the pictures and rated their levels of positive and negative emotions. Second, they were instructed to: (a) view; (b) use positive humour; or (c) use negative humour, and then rate their reactions. Compared to negative humour, positive humour was more successful at down-regulating negative and up-regulating positive emotion. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and showed that these effects cannot be explained by differences in difficulty between the two humour conditions, participants' expectations, or social desirability. Taken together, these findings suggest that positive (but not negative) humour may be an effective form of emotion regulation.

View details for DOI 10.1080/02699931.2011.585069

View details for Web of Science ID 000301650700015

View details for PubMedID 21756218
A two-dimensional approach to assessing affective states in good and poor sleepers JOURNAL OF SLEEP RESEARCH Ong, J. C., Carde, N. B., Gross, J. J., Manber, R. 2011; 20 (4): 606-610
Abstract

This study examined a two-dimensional approach to assessing affective states among good and poor sleepers using the self-assessment manikin (SAM), a brief non-verbal self-report measure of affective states with separate ratings of valence and arousal. A sample of 286 undergraduate students completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the SAM. Participants were classified post hoc as either good (PSQI ≤ 5) or poor sleepers (PSQI > 5) using the PSQI and used the SAM to rate their current affective states (day) and their affective state at bedtime (night) the previous night. Compared to good sleepers, poor sleepers reported more negative affect and arousal at night and more negative affect during the day. Among poor sleepers, lower sleep quality and shorter sleep duration on the components of the PSQI were associated with more negative daytime valence. Among good sleepers, higher scores on the sleep medication and daytime dysfunction components of the PSQI were associated with more negative daytime valence. These findings indicate that the SAM appears to detect differences between good and poor sleepers on both valence and arousal of current daytime and retrospective night-time emotional states. This approach could be useful for the assessment of affective states related to sleep disturbance.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2011.00907.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000297412700017

View details for PubMedID 21244540
Emotion-Regulation Choice PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Sheppes, G., Scheibe, S., Suri, G., Gross, J. J. 2011; 22 (11): 1391-1396
Abstract

Despite centuries of speculation about how to manage negative emotions, little is actually known about which emotion-regulation strategies people choose to use when confronted with negative situations of varying intensity. On the basis of a new process conception of emotion regulation, we hypothesized that in low-intensity negative situations, people would show a relative preference to choose to regulate emotions by engagement reappraisal, which allows emotional processing. However, we expected people in high-intensity negative situations to show a relative preference to choose to regulate emotions by disengagement distraction, which blocks emotional processing at an early stage before it gathers force. In three experiments, we created emotional contexts that varied in intensity, using either emotional pictures (Experiments 1 and 2) or unpredictable electric stimulation (Experiment 3). In response to these emotional contexts, participants chose between using either reappraisal or distraction as an emotion-regulation strategy. Results in all experiments supported our hypothesis. This pattern in the choice of emotion-regulation strategies has important implications for the understanding of healthy adaptation.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797611418350

View details for Web of Science ID 000300826400006

View details for PubMedID 21960251
Is Timing Everything? Temporal Considerations in Emotion Regulation PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW Sheppes, G., Gross, J. J. 2011; 15 (4): 319-331
Abstract

It is often said that timing is everything. The process model of emotion regulation has taken this aphorism to heart, suggesting that down-regulating emotions before they are "up and running" is always easier than down-regulating emotions once they have gathered force (i.e., generic timing hypothesis). But does timing (i.e., emotion intensity) matter equally for all forms of regulation? In this article, the authors offer an alternative process-specific timing hypothesis, in which emotion-generative and emotion-regulatory processes compete at either earlier or later stages of information processing. Regulation strategies that target early processing stages require minimal effort. Therefore, their efficacy should be relatively unaffected by emotion intensity. By contrast, regulation strategies that target later processing stages require effort that is proportional to the intensity of the emotional response. Therefore, their efficacy should be determined by the relative strength of regulatory versus emotional processes. Implications of this revised conception are considered.

View details for DOI 10.1177/1088868310395778

View details for Web of Science ID 000295178600001

View details for PubMedID 21233326
A MECHANISM FOR REDUCING DELAY DISCOUNTING BY ALTERING TEMPORAL ATTENTION JOURNAL OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR Radu, P. T., Yi, R., Bickel, W. K., Gross, J. J., McClure, S. M. 2011; 96 (3): 363-385
Abstract

Rewards that are not immediately available are discounted compared to rewards that are immediately available. The more a person discounts a delayed reward, the more likely that person is to have a range of behavioral problems, including clinical disorders. This latter observation has motivated the search for interventions that reduce discounting. One surprisingly simple method to reduce discounting is an "explicit-zero" reframing that states default or null outcomes. Reframing a classical discounting choice as "something now but nothing later" versus "nothing now but more later" decreases discount rates. However, it is not clear how this "explicit-zero" framing intervention works. The present studies delineate and test two possible mechanisms to explain the phenomenon. One mechanism proposes that the explicit-zero framing creates the impression of an improving sequence, thereby enhancing the present value of the delayed reward. A second possible mechanism posits an increase in attention allocation to temporally distant reward representations. In four experiments, we distinguish between these two hypothesized mechanisms and conclude that the temporal attention hypothesis is superior for explaining our results. We propose a model of temporal attention whereby framing affects intertemporal preferences by modifying present bias.

View details for DOI 10.1901/jeab.2011.96-363

View details for Web of Science ID 000297609500005

View details for PubMedID 22084496
Promoting the Middle East Peace Process by Changing Beliefs About Group Malleability SCIENCE Halperin, E., Russell, A. G., Trzesniewski, K. H., Gross, J. J., Dweck, C. S. 2011; 333 (6050): 1767-1769
Abstract

Four studies showed that beliefs about whether groups have a malleable versus fixed nature affected intergroup attitudes and willingness to compromise for peace. Using a nationwide sample (N = 500) of Israeli Jews, the first study showed that a belief that groups were malleable predicted positive attitudes toward Palestinians, which in turn predicted willingness to compromise. In the remaining three studies, experimentally inducing malleable versus fixed beliefs about groups among Israeli Jews (N = 76), Palestinian citizens of Israel (N = 59), and Palestinians in the West Bank (N = 53)--without mentioning the adversary--led to more positive attitudes toward the outgroup and, in turn, increased willingness to compromise for peace.

View details for DOI 10.1126/science.1202925

View details for Web of Science ID 000295121500049

View details for PubMedID 21868627
Assessing Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder: The Emotion Regulation Interview JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT Werner, K. H., Goldin, P. R., Ball, T. M., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2011; 33 (3): 346-354
View details for DOI 10.1007/s10862-011-9225-x

View details for Web of Science ID 000293139100006
Feeling bad about screwing up: emotion regulation and action monitoring in the anterior cingulate cortex COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE Ichikawa, N., Siegle, G. J., Jones, N. P., Kamishima, K., Thompson, W. K., Gross, J. J., Ohira, H. 2011; 11 (3): 354-371
Abstract

This study examined neural features of emotional responses to errors. We specifically examined whether directed emotion regulation of negative emotion associated with error modulates action-monitoring functions of anterior cingulate cortex, including conflict monitoring, error processing, and error prevention. Seventeen healthy adults performed a continuous performance task during assessment by fMRI. In each block, participants were asked either to increase or decrease their negative emotional responses or to react naturally after error commission. Emotion regulation instructions were associated with modulation of rostral and dorsal anterior activity and of their effective connectivity following errors and conflict. Cingulate activity and connectivity predicted subsequent errors. These data may suggest that responses to errors are affected by emotion and that aspects of emotion and cognition are inextricably linked, even during a nominally cognitive task.

View details for DOI 10.3758/s13415-011-0028-z

View details for Web of Science ID 000293238700007

View details for PubMedID 21590316
The temporal dynamics of two response-focused forms of emotion regulation: Experiential, expressive, and autonomic consequences PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Dan-Glauser, E. S., Gross, J. J. 2011; 48 (9): 1309-1322
Abstract

This study examines the early affective consequences of two close forms of suppression. Participants (N=37) were shown negative, positive, and neutral pictures and cued either to attend to the pictures, or to perform expressive or physiological suppression (i.e., reduce body reactions). Continuous measures of experience, expressivity, and autonomic responses showed that both suppression strategies produced rapid response modulation. Common effects of the two strategies included a transient increase in negative feeling, a durable decrease in positive feeling, and a decrease in expressivity, cardiovascular activity, and oxygenation. The two strategies were significantly different only in response to positive stimuli, with physiological suppression showing a larger decrease in experience intensity and blood pressure. These results suggest a strong overlap between the two suppression strategies in terms of their early impact on emotional responses.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01191.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000293228800015

View details for PubMedID 21361967
Emotion regulation and brain plasticity: Expressive suppression use predicts anterior insula volume NEUROIMAGE Giuliani, N. R., Drabant, E. M., Bhatnagar, R., Gross, J. J. 2011; 58 (1): 10-15
Abstract

Expressive suppression is an emotion regulation strategy that requires interoceptive and emotional awareness. These processes both recruit the anterior insula. It is not known, however, whether increased use of expressive suppression is associated with increased anterior insula volume. In the present study, high-resolution anatomical MRI images were used to calculate insula volumes in a set of 50 healthy female subjects (mean 21.9 years) using both region of interest (ROI) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) approaches. Participants also completed trait measures of expressive suppression usage, cognitive reappraisal usage, and negative emotional reactivity (the latter two served as control measures). As predicted, both ROI and VBM methods found that expressive suppression usage, but not negative affect and cognitive reappraisal, was positively related to anterior insula volume. These findings are consistent with the idea that trait patterns of emotion processing are related to brain structure.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.028

View details for Web of Science ID 000293548500002

View details for PubMedID 21704173
An affective computing approach to physiological emotion specificity: Toward subject-independent and stimulus-independent classification of film-induced emotions PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Kolodyazhniy, V., Kreibig, S. D., Gross, J. J., Roth, W. T., Wilhelm, F. H. 2011; 48 (7): 908-922
Abstract

The hypothesis of physiological emotion specificity has been tested using pattern classification analysis (PCA). To address limitations of prior research using PCA, we studied effects of feature selection (sequential forward selection, sequential backward selection), classifier type (linear and quadratic discriminant analysis, neural networks, k-nearest neighbors method), and cross-validation method (subject- and stimulus-(in)dependence). Analyses were run on a data set of 34 participants watching two sets of three 10-min film clips (fearful, sad, neutral) while autonomic, respiratory, and facial muscle activity were assessed. Results demonstrate that the three states can be classified with high accuracy by most classifiers, with the sparsest model having only five features, even for the most difficult task of identifying the emotion of an unknown subject in an unknown situation (77.5%). Implications for choosing PCA parameters are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01170.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000291255500004

View details for PubMedID 21261632
Intergroup anger in intractable conflict: Long-term sentiments predict anger responses during the Gaza War GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS Halperin, E., Gross, J. J. 2011; 14 (4): 477-488
View details for DOI 10.1177/1368430210377459

View details for Web of Science ID 000291587600003
Childhood trauma and current psychological functioning in adults with social anxiety disorder JOURNAL OF ANXIETY DISORDERS Kuo, J. R., Goldin, P. R., Werner, K., Heimberg, R. G., Gross, J. J. 2011; 25 (4): 467-473
Abstract

Etiological models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) suggest that early childhood trauma contributes to the development of this disorder. However, surprisingly little is known about the link between different forms of childhood trauma and adult clinical symptoms in SAD. This study (1) compared levels of childhood trauma in adults with generalized SAD versus healthy controls (HCs), and (2) examined the relationship between specific types of childhood trauma and adult clinical symptoms in SAD. Participants were 102 individuals with generalized SAD and 30 HCs who completed measures of childhood trauma, social anxiety, trait anxiety, depression, and self-esteem. Compared to HCs, individuals with SAD reported greater childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect. Within the SAD group, childhood emotional abuse and neglect, but not sexual abuse, physical abuse, or physical neglect, were associated with the severity of social anxiety, trait anxiety, depression, and self-esteem.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.11.011

View details for Web of Science ID 000289588000001

View details for PubMedID 21183310
Affective modulation of the acoustic startle: Does sadness engage the defensive system? BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Kreibig, S. D., Wilhelm, F. H., Roth, W. T., Gross, J. J. 2011; 87 (1): 161-163
Abstract

It has been suggested that high arousal negative affective states, but not low arousal negative affective states, potentiate the startle response. Because sadness has generally been studied as a low arousal emotion, it remains unclear whether high arousal sadness would produce startle potentiation to a similar degree as high arousal fear. To address this issue, 32 participants viewed two sets of 10-min film clips selected to induce two affective states of high subjective arousal (fear, sadness) and a neutral state of low subjective arousal, while the eyeblink startle response associated with brief noise bursts was assessed using orbicularis oculi EMG. Larger blink magnitude was found for fearful than for sad or neutral clips. Implications for conceptualizing sadness are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.008

View details for Web of Science ID 000290195100020

View details for PubMedID 21352887
The temporal dynamics of emotion regulation: An EEG study of distraction and reappraisal BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Thiruchselvam, R., Blechert, J., Sheppes, G., Rydstrom, A., Gross, J. J. 2011; 87 (1): 84-92
Abstract

Distraction and reappraisal are two widely used forms of emotion regulation. The process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998) holds that they differ (1) in when they act on the emotion-generative process, and (2) in their impact on subsequent responses to regulated stimuli. We tested these two predictions by measuring electrocortical responses to neutral and emotional images during two phases. In the regulation phase, images were watched or regulated using distraction or reappraisal. During the re-exposure phase, the same images were passively watched. As predicted, during regulation, distraction reduced the late positive potential (LPP) earlier than reappraisal. Upon re-exposure, images with a distraction (but not reappraisal) history elicited a larger LPP than images with an attend history. This pattern of results suggests that distraction and reappraisal intervene at separate stages during emotion generation, a feature which may have distinct consequences that extend beyond the regulatory episode.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.02.009

View details for Web of Science ID 000290195100010

View details for PubMedID 21354262
Psychological Distance and Emotional Experience: What You See Is What You Get EMOTION Davis, J. I., Gross, J. J., Ochsner, K. N. 2011; 11 (2): 438-444
Abstract

Recent research suggests that perceiving negative emotion-eliciting scenes approaching intensifies the associated felt emotion, while perceiving emotion-eliciting scenes receding weakens the associated felt emotion (Muhlberger, Neumann, Wieser, & Pauli, 2008). In the present studies, we sought to extend these findings by examining the effects of imagining rather than perceiving such changes to negative emotion-eliciting scenes. Across three studies, we found that negative scenes generally elicited less negative responses and lower levels of arousal when imagined moving away from participants and shrinking, and more negative responses and higher levels of arousal when imagined moving toward participants and growing, as compared to the responses elicited by negative scenes when imagined unchanged. Patterns in responses to neutral scenes undergoing the same imagined transformations were similar on ratings of emotional arousal, but differed on valence-generally eliciting greater positivity when imagined moving toward participants and growing, and less positivity when imagined moving away from participants and shrinking. Moreover, for these effects to emerge, participants reported it necessary to explicitly imagine scenes moving closer or farther. These findings have implications for emotion regulation, and suggest that imagined spatial distance plays a role in mental representations of emotionally salient events.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0021783

View details for Web of Science ID 000289272000023

View details for PubMedID 21500912
Don't Hide Your Happiness! Positive Emotion Dissociation, Social Connectedness, and Psychological Functioning JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Mauss, I. B., Shallcross, A. J., Troy, A. S., Ferrer, E., John, O. P., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2011; 100 (4): 738-748
Abstract

It is now clear that positive emotion leads to enhanced psychological functioning. What is less clear, however, is just why this is so. Drawing on a social-functional perspective, we argue that positive emotional behavior that accurately signals to others the individual's internal state will enhance social connectedness. Positive emotional behavior that does not accurately signal a person's experience--such as a smile that is not felt--may impede social connectedness and, in turn, psychological functioning. This perspective suggests that (a) the degree to which experience and behavior are dissociated during positive emotional episodes, over and above level of positive behavior, should predict worse psychological functioning and (b) the effect of dissociation should be mediated by social connectedness. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a short-term prospective longitudinal study, with a baseline assessment of depressive symptoms and well-being at Time 1. Six months later, at Time 2, we used a novel within-individual laboratory paradigm to measure the degree to which positive emotional behavior was dissociated from (vs. coherent with) a participant's positive emotional experience. We also assessed level of positive behavior and experience. Then, another 6 months later, we assessed social connectedness as a mediator and depressive symptoms and well-being as outcomes at Time 3. Even when controlling for baseline functioning and for level of positive emotion behavior and experience, we found that greater positive experience-behavior dissociation at Time 2 predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of well-being at Time 3. As predicted, these associations were mediated by social connectedness.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0022410

View details for Web of Science ID 000288776100012

View details for PubMedID 21280962
The Moral Emotions: A Social-Functionalist Account of Anger, Disgust, and Contempt JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Hutcherson, C. A., Gross, J. J. 2011; 100 (4): 719-737
Abstract

Recent research has highlighted the important role of emotion in moral judgment and decision making (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001; Haidt, 2001). What is less clear is whether distinctions should be drawn among specific moral emotions. Although some have argued for differences among anger, disgust, and contempt (Rozin, Lowery, Imada, & Haidt, 1999), others have suggested that these terms may describe a single undifferentiated emotional response to morally offensive behavior (Nabi, 2002). In this article, we take a social-functionalist perspective, which makes the prediction that these emotions should be differentiable both in antecedent appraisals and in consequent actions and judgments. Studies 1-3 tested and found support for our predictions concerning distinctions among antecedent appraisals, including (a) a more general role for disgust than has been previously been described, (b) an effect of self-relevance on anger but not other emotions, and (c) a role for contempt in judging incompetent actions. Studies 4 and 5 tested and found support for our specific predictions concerning functional outcomes, providing evidence that these emotions are associated with different consequences. Taken together, these studies support a social-functionalist account of anger, disgust, and contempt and lay the foundation for future research on the negative interpersonal emotions.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0022408

View details for Web of Science ID 000288776100011

View details for PubMedID 21280963
Anger, Hatred, and the Quest for Peace: Anger Can Be Constructive in the Absence of Hatred JOURNAL OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION Halperin, E., Russell, A. G., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J. 2011; 55 (2): 274-291
View details for DOI 10.1177/0022002710383670

View details for Web of Science ID 000289616700005
Anterior cingulate cortex volume and emotion regulation: Is bigger better? BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY Giuliani, N. R., Drabant, E. M., Gross, J. J. 2011; 86 (3): 379-382
Abstract

Emotion dysregulation is a key feature of mood and anxiety disorders. Many of these disorders also involve volumetric reductions in brain regions implicated in emotion regulation, including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Investigating this relationship in healthy individuals may clarify the link between emotion regulation and volumetric reductions in this key brain region. High-resolution anatomical MRI images were used to calculate dACC volumes in 50 healthy female subjects. Trait measures of emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and negative affect were also obtained. As predicted, cognitive reappraisal was positively related to dACC volume, but not the volume of a control region, the ventral ACC. Expressive suppression, negative affect, and age were not related to dACC volume. These findings indicate that individual differences in cognitive reappraisal are related to individual differences in dACC volume in healthy participants.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.11.010

View details for Web of Science ID 000289137500027

View details for PubMedID 21138751
ALTERED CEREBRAL BLOOD FLOW PATTERNS ASSOCIATED WITH PATHOLOGIC WORRY IN THE ELDERLY DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY Andreescu, C., Gross, J. J., Lenze, E., Edelman, K. D., Snyder, S., Tanase, C., Aizenstein, H. 2011; 28 (3): 202-209
Abstract

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is the most prevalent anxiety disorder among the elderly and has high functional and cognitive morbidity. However, late-life GAD is relatively understudied and its functional neuroanatomy is uncharted. Several imaging studies have suggested abnormalities in the cognitive control systems of emotion regulation in anxiety disorders in young adults. The aim of this study was to examine the neural correlates of emotion regulation in late-life GAD.We compared 7 elderly GAD subjects and 10 elderly nonanxious comparison subjects using functional MRI. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured using pulsed arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI at rest and during an emotion regulation paradigm.Relative to the rest condition, elderly nonanxious comparison subjects had increased rCBF during worry induction (WI) in the right insula, bilateral amygdala, and associative temporooccipital areas. Elderly GAD subjects had increased rCBF during WI in the associative temporooccipital areas, but not in the insula or the amygdala. During worry suppression (WS), elderly nonanxious comparison subjects had increased rCBF in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and dorsal ACC. Elderly GAD subjects had no changes in rCBF during WS in the PFC.When attempting to regulate their emotional responses, elderly anxious subjects failed to activate prefrontal regions involved in the downregulation of negative emotions. These results, showing that elderly anxious subjects are not effectively engaging the PFC in suppressing worry, may be clinically relevant for developing personalized therapeutic strategies for the treatment of late-life GAD.

View details for DOI 10.1002/da.20799

View details for Web of Science ID 000288331700004

View details for PubMedID 21394853
Experiential, autonomic, and neural responses during threat anticipation vary as a function of threat intensity and neuroticism NEUROIMAGE Drabant, E. M., Kuo, J. R., Ramel, W., Blechert, J., Edge, M. D., Cooper, J. R., Goldin, P. R., Hariri, A. R., Gross, J. J. 2011; 55 (1): 401-410
Abstract

Anticipatory emotional responses play a crucial role in preparing individuals for impending challenges. They do this by triggering a coordinated set of changes in behavioral, autonomic, and neural response systems. In the present study, we examined the biobehavioral impact of varying levels of anticipatory anxiety, using a shock anticipation task in which unpredictable electric shocks were threatened and delivered to the wrist at variable intervals and intensities (safe, medium, strong). This permitted investigation of a dynamic range of anticipatory anxiety responses. In two studies, 95 and 51 healthy female participants, respectively, underwent this shock anticipation task while providing continuous ratings of anxiety experience and electrodermal responding (Study 1) and during fMRI BOLD neuroimaging (Study 2). Results indicated a step-wise pattern of responding in anxiety experience and electrodermal responses. Several brain regions showed robust responses to shock anticipation relative to safe trials, including the hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, caudate, precentral gyrus, thalamus, insula, ventrolateral PFC, dorsomedial PFC, and ACC. A subset of these regions demonstrated a linear pattern of increased responding from safe to medium to strong trials, including the bilateral insula, ACC, and inferior frontal gyrus. These responses were modulated by individual differences in neuroticism, such that those high in neuroticism showed exaggerated anxiety experience across the entire task, and reduced brain activation from medium to strong trials in a subset of brain regions. These findings suggest that individual differences in neuroticism may influence sensitivity to anticipatory threat and provide new insights into the mechanism through which neuroticism may confer risk for developing anxiety disorders via dysregulated anticipatory responses.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.11.040

View details for Web of Science ID 000287008900040

View details for PubMedID 21093595
Stimulation at dorsal and ventral electrode contacts targeted at the subthalamic nucleus has different effects on motor and emotion functions in Parkinson's disease NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA Greenhouse, I., Gould, S., Houser, M., Hicks, G., Gross, J., Aron, A. R. 2011; 49 (3): 528-534
Abstract

Motor and emotion processing depend on different fronto-basal ganglia circuits. Distinct sub-regions of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) may modulate these circuits. We evaluated whether stimulation targeted at separate territories in the STN region would differentially affect motor and emotion function. In a double-blind design, we studied twenty Parkinson's disease patients who had deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes implanted bilaterally in the STN. We stimulated either dorsal or ventral contacts of the STN electrodes on separate days in each patient and acquired behavioral measures. Dorsal contact stimulation improved motor function by reducing scores on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and by reducing both reaction time and reaction time variability compared to ventral contact stimulation. By contrast, ventral contact stimulation led to an increase in positive emotion compared to dorsal contact stimulation. These results support the hypothesis that different territories within the STN region implement motor and emotion functions.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.030

View details for Web of Science ID 000287909900025

View details for PubMedID 21184765
Misery Has More Company Than People Think: Underestimating the Prevalence of Others' Negative Emotions PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Jordan, A. H., Monin, B., Dweck, C. S., Lovett, B. J., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2011; 37 (1): 120-135
Abstract

Four studies document underestimations of the prevalence of others' negative emotions and suggest causes and correlates of these erroneous perceptions. In Study 1a, participants reported that their negative emotions were more private or hidden than were their positive emotions; in Study 1b, participants underestimated the peer prevalence of common negative, but not positive, experiences described in Study 1a. In Study 2, people underestimated negative emotions and overestimated positive emotions even for well-known peers, and this effect was partially mediated by the degree to which those peers reported suppression of negative (vs. positive) emotions. Study 3 showed that lower estimations of the prevalence of negative emotional experiences predicted greater loneliness and rumination and lower life satisfaction and that higher estimations for positive emotional experiences predicted lower life satisfaction. Taken together, these studies suggest that people may think they are more alone in their emotional difficulties than they really are.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0146167210390822

View details for Web of Science ID 000285544600010

View details for PubMedID 21177878
Emotion regulation in violent conflict: Reappraisal, hope, and support for humanitarian aid to the opponent in wartime COGNITION & EMOTION Halperin, E., Gross, J. J. 2011; 25 (7): 1228-1236
Abstract

It is well known that negative intergroup emotions such as anger, fear, and hatred play a major role in initiating and maintaining intergroup conflicts. It is far less clear, however, what factors promote the resolution of intergroup conflicts. Using an emotion regulation- framework, we hypothesised that one form of emotion regulation-namely cognitive reappraisal-should play a salutary role in such conflicts, and be associated with increased hope as well as greater support for humanitarian aid to out-group members. To test these hypotheses, we used a nationwide survey of Jewish-Israeli adults, conducted during the war in Gaza between Israelis and Palestinians. Results obtained via structural equation modelling revealed that Israelis who regulated their negative emotions during the war through reappraisal were more supportive in providing humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian citizens and that this relation was partially mediated by an enhanced feeling of hope.

View details for DOI 10.1080/02699931.2010.536081

View details for Web of Science ID 000299564700008

View details for PubMedID 22017615
Emotion and emotion regulation in intergroup conflict: An appraisal-based framework Intergroup conflicts and their resolution: A social psychological perspective Halperin, E., Sharvit, K., Gross, J. J. edited by Bar-Tal, D. New York: Psychology Press. 2011: 83–103
Psychology Gleitman, H., Gross, J. J., Reisberg, D. New York, NY: Norton. 2011
Beyond pleasure and pain? Emotion regulation and positive psychology Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward Tamir, M., Gross, J. J. edited by Sheldon, K. M., Kashdan, T. B., Steger, M. F. New York: Oxford University Press. 2011: 89–100
Taking one's lumps while doing the splits: A big tent perspective on emotion generation and emotion regulation COGNITION & EMOTION Gross, J. J., Sheppes, G., Urry, H. L. 2011; 25 (5): 789-793
View details for DOI 10.1080/02699931.2011.586590

View details for Web of Science ID 000299562700004
The reason in passion: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to emotion regulation. Handbook of self regulation: Research, theory, and applications McRae, K., Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J., Vohs, K. D. edited by Baumeister, R. F. New York, NY: Guilford Press.. 2011; 2nd: 186–203
A NETWORK APPROACH FOR EVALUATING COHERENCE IN MULTIVARIATE SYSTEMS: AN APPLICATION TO PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL EMOTION DATA PSYCHOMETRIKA Hsieh, F., Ferrer, E., Chen, S., Mauss, I. B., John, O., Gross, J. J. 2011; 76 (1): 124-152
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11336-010-9194-0

View details for Web of Science ID 000289439000008
Posttraumatic stress, difficulties in emotion regulation, and coping-oriented marijuana use. Cognitive behaviour therapy Bonn-Miller, M. O., Vujanovic, A. A., Boden, M. T., Gross, J. J. 2011; 40 (1): 34-44
Abstract

In an effort to better understand factors that may explain prior findings of a positive relation between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and coping-oriented marijuana use motivation, the present study tested whether the association between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and marijuana use coping motives is mediated by difficulties in emotion regulation. Participants were 79 (39 women; M(age) = 22.29 years, SD = 6.99) community-recruited adults who reported (1) lifetime exposure to at least one posttraumatic stress disorder Criterion A traumatic event and (2) marijuana use in the past 30 days. Results indicated that difficulties in emotion regulation, as indexed by the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004), fully mediated the association between posttraumatic stress symptom severity and marijuana use coping motives. Implications for the treatment of co-occurring posttraumatic stress and marijuana use are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1080/16506073.2010.525253

View details for PubMedID 21337213
Cognition and Emotion Lecture at the 2010 SPSP Emotion Preconference Emotion generation and emotion regulation: A distinction we should make (carefully) COGNITION & EMOTION Gross, J. J., Sheppes, G., Urry, H. L. 2011; 25 (5): 765-781
Abstract

One of the most fundamental distinctions in the field of emotion is the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation. This distinction fits comfortably with folk theories, which view emotions as passions that arise unbidden and then must be controlled. But is it really helpful to distinguish between emotion generation and emotion regulation? In this article, we begin by offering working definitions of emotion generation and emotion regulation. We argue that in some circumstances, the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation is indeed useful. We point both to citation patterns, which indicate that researchers from across a number of sub-areas within psychology are making this distinction, and to empirical studies, which indicate the utility of this distinction in many different research contexts. We then consider five ways in which the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation can be problematic. We suggest that it is time to move beyond debates about whether this distinction is useful to a more specific consideration of when and in what ways this distinction is useful, and in this spirit, we offer recommendations for future research.

View details for DOI 10.1080/02699931.2011.555753

View details for Web of Science ID 000299562700001

View details for PubMedID 21824019
Emotion Generation and Emotion Regulation: One or Two Depends on Your Point of View EMOTION REVIEW Gross, J. J., Barrett, L. F. 2011; 3 (1): 8-16
Abstract

Emotion regulation has the odd distinction of being a wildly popular construct whose scientific existence is in considerable doubt. In this article, we discuss the confusion about whether emotion generation and emotion regulation can and should be distinguished from one another. We describe a continuum of perspectives on emotion, and highlight how different (often mutually incompatible) perspectives on emotion lead to different views about whether emotion generation and emotion regulation can be usefully distinguished. We argue that making differences in perspective explicit serves the function of allowing researchers with different theoretical commitments to collaborate productively despite seemingly insurmountable differences in terminology and methods.

View details for DOI 10.1177/1754073910380974

View details for Web of Science ID 000306271500002
Explicit and implicit emotion regulation: A dual-process framework COGNITION & EMOTION Gyurak, A., Gross, J. J., Etkin, A. 2011; 25 (3): 400-412
Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that emotions can be regulated in an astonishing variety of ways. Most research to date has focused on explicit (effortful) forms of emotion regulation. However, there is growing research interest in implicit (automatic) forms of emotion regulation. To organise emerging findings, we present a dual-process framework that integrates explicit and implicit forms of emotion regulation, and argue that both forms of regulation are necessary for well-being. In the first section of this review, we provide a broad overview of the construct of emotion regulation, with an emphasis on explicit and implicit processes. In the second section, we focus on explicit emotion regulation, considering both neural mechanisms that are associated with these processes and their experiential and physiological consequences. In the third section, we turn to several forms of implicit emotion regulation, and integrate the burgeoning literature in this area. We conclude by outlining open questions and areas for future research.

View details for DOI 10.1080/02699931.2010.544160

View details for Web of Science ID 000288672700002

View details for PubMedID 21432682
Context-Dependent Emotion Regulation: Suppression and Reappraisal at the Burning Man Festival BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY McRae, K., Heller, S. M., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2011; 33 (4): 346-350
View details for DOI 10.1080/01973533.2011.614170

View details for Web of Science ID 000300160500005
Emotion Regulation in Older Age CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Urry, H. L., Gross, J. J. 2010; 19 (6): 352-357
View details for DOI 10.1177/0963721410388395

View details for Web of Science ID 000288426500003
Cognitive Reappraisal of Negative Affect: Converging Evidence From EMG and Self-Report EMOTION Ray, R. D., McRae, K., Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. 2010; 10 (4): 587-592
Abstract

Prior psychophysiological studies of cognitive reappraisal have generally focused on the down-regulation of negative affect, and have demonstrated either changes in self-reports of affective experience, or changes in facial electromyography, but not both. Unfortunately, when taken separately, these measures are vulnerable to different sources of bias, and alternative explanations might account for changes in these indicators of negative affect. What is needed is a study that (a) obtains measures of self-reported affect together with facial electromyography, and (b) examines the use of reappraisal to regulate externally and internally generated affective responses. In the present study, participants up- or down-regulated negative affect in the context of both negative and neutral pictures. Up-regulation led to greater self reports of negative affect, as well as greater corrugator and startle responses to both negative and neutral stimuli. Down-regulation led to lesser reports of negative affect, and lesser corrugator responses to negative and neutral stimuli. These results extend prior research by (a) showing simultaneous effects on multiple measures of affect, and (b) demonstrating that cognitive reappraisal may be used both to regulate responses to negative stimuli and to manufacture a negative response to neutral stimuli.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a001901533

View details for Web of Science ID 000280829700013

View details for PubMedID 20677875
Oxytocin Makes People Trusting, Not Gullible PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Mikolajczak, M., Gross, J. J., Lane, A., Corneille, O., de Timary, P., Luminet, O. 2010; 21 (8): 1072-1074
View details for DOI 10.1177/0956797610377343

View details for Web of Science ID 000285454200006

View details for PubMedID 20631321
Emotion Regulation and Vulnerability to Depression: Spontaneous Versus Instructed Use of Emotion Suppression and Reappraisal EMOTION Ehring, T., Tuschen-Caffier, B., Schnuelle, J., Fischer, S., Gross, J. J. 2010; 10 (4): 563-572
Abstract

Emotion dysregulation has long been thought to be a vulnerability factor for mood disorders. However, there have been few empirical tests of this idea. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that depression vulnerability is related to difficulties with emotion regulation by comparing recovered-depressed and never-depressed participants (N = 73). In the first phase, participants completed questionnaires assessing their typical use of emotion regulation strategies. In the second phase, sad mood was induced using a film clip, and the degree to which participants reported to have spontaneously used suppression versus reappraisal to regulate their emotions was assessed. In the third phase, participants received either suppression or reappraisal instructions prior to watching a second sadness-inducing film. As predicted, suppression was found to be ineffective for down-regulating negative emotions, and recovered-depressed participants reported to have spontaneously used this strategy during the first sadness-inducing film more often than controls. However, the groups did not differ regarding the effects of induced suppression versus reappraisal on negative mood. These results provide evidence for a role for spontaneous but not instructed emotion regulation in depression vulnerability.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0019010

View details for Web of Science ID 000280829700011

View details for PubMedID 20677873
The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades EMOTION REVIEW Gross, J. J. 2010; 2 (3): 212-216
View details for DOI 10.1177/1754073910361982

View details for Web of Science ID 000208388500004
Interdependent self-construal and neural representations of self and mother SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE Ray, R. D., Shelton, A. L., Hollon, N. G., Matsumoto, D., Frankel, C. B., Gross, J. J., Gabrieli, J. D. 2010; 5 (2-3): 318-323
Abstract

Representations of self are thought to be dynamically influenced by one's surroundings, including the culture one lives in. However, neuroimaging studies of self-representations have either ignored cultural influences or operationalized culture as country of origin. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural correlates of individual differences in interdependent self-construal. Participants rated whether trait adjectives applied to themselves or their mothers, or judged their valence or font. Findings indicated that individual differences in interdependent self-construal correlated positively with increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulated cortex when making judgments about one-self vs making judgments about one's mother. This suggests that those with greater interdependent self-construals may rely more upon episodic memory, reflected appraisals, or theory of mind to incorporate social information to make judgments about themselves.

View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nsp039

View details for Web of Science ID 000282071900023

View details for PubMedID 19822601
Emotional reactivity and cognitive regulation in anxious children BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH AND THERAPY Carthy, T., Horesh, N., Apter, A., Edge, M. D., Gross, J. J. 2010; 48 (5): 384-393
Abstract

Recent models of anxiety disorders emphasize abnormalities in emotional reactivity and regulation. However, the empirical basis for this view is limited, particularly in children and adolescents. The present study examined whether anxious children suffer both negative emotional hyper-reactivity and deficits in cognitive emotion regulation. Participants were 49 children aged 10-17 with generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or separation anxiety disorder as their primary diagnosis, as well as 42 age- and gender-matched non-anxious controls. After completing a diagnostic interview and self-report questionnaires, participants were presented with pictures of threatening scenes with the instructions either to simply view them or to use reappraisal, a cognitive emotion regulation strategy, to decrease their negative emotional response. Emotion ratings, content analysis of reappraisal responses, and reports of everyday use of reappraisal were used to assess negative emotional reactivity, reappraisal ability, efficacy and frequency. Relative to controls, children with anxiety disorders (1) experienced greater negative emotional responses to the images, (2) were less successful at applying reappraisals, but (3) showed intact ability to reduce their negative emotions following reappraisal. They also (4) reported less frequent use of reappraisal in everyday life. Implications for the assessment and treatment of childhood anxiety disorders are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2009.12.013

View details for Web of Science ID 000278168000005

View details for PubMedID 20089246
Healthy young women with serotonin transporter SS polymorphism show a pro-inflammatory bias under resting and stress conditions BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY Fredericks, C. A., Drabant, E. M., Edge, M. D., Tillie, J. M., Hallmayer, J., Ramel, W., Kuo, J. R., Mackey, S., Gross, J. J., Dhabhar, F. S. 2010; 24 (3): 350-357
Abstract

The study of functionally relevant biological effects of serotonin transporter gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphisms is especially important given the current controversy about the clinical relevance of these polymorphisms. Here we report an intrinsic immunobiological difference between individuals carrying two short (SS) versus long (LL) 5-HTTLPR alleles, that is observed in healthy subjects reporting low exposure to life stress. Given that 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms are thought to influence susceptibility to depression and are associated with robust neurobiological effects, that depression is associated with higher pro-inflammatory and lower anti-inflammatory cytokines, and that acute stressors increase circulating concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines, we hypothesized that compared to LL individuals, SS individuals may show a pro-inflammatory bias under resting conditions and/or during stress. 15 LL and 11 SS individuals participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Serum IL-6 and IL-10 were quantified at baseline and 30, 60, 90, and 120min after beginning the 20-min stress test. Compared to LL individuals, SS individuals showed a higher IL-6/IL-10 ratio at baseline and during stress. Importantly, this pro-inflammatory bias was observed despite both groups being healthy, reporting similar intensities of stress and negative emotionality during the TSST, and reporting similar low exposures to early and recent life stress. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a pro-inflammatory bias/phenotype in individuals carrying the SS genotype of 5-HTTLPR. Thus, healthy SS individuals may be chronically exposed to a pro-inflammatory physiological burden under resting and stress conditions, which could increase their vulnerability to disorders like depression and other diseases that can be facilitated/exacerbated by a chronic pro-inflammatory state.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.bbi.2009.10.014

View details for Web of Science ID 000275217300004

View details for PubMedID 19883751
Patterns of Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Children with Anxiety Disorders JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT Carthy, T., Horesh, N., Apter, A., Gross, J. J. 2010; 32 (1): 23-36
View details for DOI 10.1007/s10862-009-9167-8

View details for Web of Science ID 000274520400003
Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on Emotion Regulation in Social Anxiety Disorder EMOTION Goldin, P. R., Gross, J. J. 2010; 10 (1): 83-91
Abstract

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an established program shown to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. MBSR is believed to alter emotional responding by modifying cognitive-affective processes. Given that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by emotional and attentional biases as well as distorted negative self-beliefs, we examined MBSR-related changes in the brain-behavior indices of emotional reactivity and regulation of negative self-beliefs in patients with SAD. Sixteen patients underwent functional MRI while reacting to negative self-beliefs and while regulating negative emotions using 2 types of attention deployment emotion regulation-breath-focused attention and distraction-focused attention. Post-MBSR, 14 patients completed neuroimaging assessments. Compared with baseline, MBSR completers showed improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms and self-esteem. During the breath-focused attention task (but not the distraction-focused attention task), they also showed (a) decreased negative emotion experience, (b) reduced amygdala activity, and (c) increased activity in brain regions implicated in attentional deployment. MBSR training in patients with SAD may reduce emotional reactivity while enhancing emotion regulation. These changes might facilitate reduction in SAD-related avoidance behaviors, clinical symptoms, and automatic emotional reactivity to negative self-beliefs in adults with SAD.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0018441

View details for Web of Science ID 000274400800011

View details for PubMedID 20141305
The Neural Bases of Distraction and Reappraisal JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE McRae, K., Hughes, B., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J., Ochsner, K. N. 2010; 22 (2): 248-262
Abstract

Distraction and reappraisal are two commonly used forms of cognitive emotion regulation. Functional neuroimaging studies have shown that each one depends upon interactions between pFC, interpreted as implementing cognitive control, and limbic regions, interpreted as mediating emotional responses. However, no study has directly compared distraction with reappraisal, and it remains unclear whether they draw upon different neural mechanisms and have different emotional consequences. The present fMRI study compared distraction and reappraisal and found both similarities and differences between the two forms of emotion regulation. Both resulted in decreased negative affect, decreased activation in the amygdala, and increased activation in prefrontal and cingulate regions. Relative to distraction, reappraisal led to greater decreases in negative affect and to greater increases in a network of regions associated with processing affective meaning (medial prefrontal and anterior temporal cortices). Relative to reappraisal, distraction led to greater decreases in amygdala activation and to greater increases in activation in prefrontal and parietal regions. Taken together, these data suggest that distraction and reappraisal differentially engage neural systems involved in attentional deployment and cognitive reframing and have different emotional consequences.

View details for Web of Science ID 000274034500004

View details for PubMedID 19400679
An Italian Adaptation of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT Balzarotti, S., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2010; 26 (1): 61-67
View details for DOI 10.1027/1015-5759/a000009

View details for Web of Science ID 000274049400009
Emotion regulation Corsini's encyclopedia of psychology McRae, K., Gross, J. J. edited by Weiner, I. B., Craighead, W. E. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 2010; 4th: 558–560
Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A conceptual framework Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment Werner, K., Gross, J. J. edited by Kring, A., Sloan, d. New York: Guilford Press. 2010: 13–37
The cybernetic process model of self-control: Situation- and person-specific considerations Handbook of personality and selfregulation Magen, E., Gross, J. J. edited by Hoyle, R. H. New York, NY: Blackwell Publications. 2010: 353–374
Getting our act together: Toward a general model of selfcontrol Self control in society, mind, and brain Magen, E., Gross, J. J. edited by Hassin, R., Ochsner, K. N., Trope, Y. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2010: 335–353
Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Reappraisal of Negative Self-Beliefs in Social Anxiety Disorder BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY Goldin, P. R., Manber-Ball, T., Werner, K., Heimberg, R., Gross, J. J. 2009; 66 (12): 1091-1099
Abstract

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by distorted negative self-beliefs (NSBs), which are thought to enhance emotional reactivity, interfere with emotion regulation, and undermine social functioning. Cognitive reappraisal is a type of emotion regulation used to alter NSBs, with the goal of modulating emotional reactivity. Despite its relevance, little is known about the neural bases and temporal features of cognitive reappraisal in patients with SAD.Twenty-seven patients with SAD and 27 healthy control subjects (HCs) were trained to react and to implement cognitive reappraisal to downregulate negative emotional reactivity to NSBs, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging and providing ratings of negative emotion experience.Behaviorally, compared with HCs, patients with SAD reported greater negative emotion both while reacting to and reappraising NSBs. However, when cued, participants in both groups were able to use cognitive reappraisal to decrease negative emotion. Neurally, reacting to NSBs resulted in early amygdala response in both groups. Reappraising NSBs resulted in greater early cognitive control, language, and visual processing in HCs but greater late cognitive control, visceral, and visual processing in patients with SAD. Functional connectivity analysis during reappraisal identified more regulatory regions inversely related to left amygdala in HCs than in patients with SAD. Reappraisal-related brain regions that differentiated patients and control subjects were associated with negative emotion ratings and cognitive reappraisal self-efficacy.Findings regarding cognitive reappraisal suggest neural timing, connectivity, and brain-behavioral associations specific to patients with SAD and elucidate neural mechanisms that might serve as biomarkers of interventions for SAD.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.07.014

View details for Web of Science ID 000272599500004

View details for PubMedID 19717138

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC2788040
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processes in Emotion Generation: Common and Distinct Neural Mechanisms PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Ochsner, K. N., Ray, R. R., Hughes, B., McRae, K., Cooper, J. C., Weber, J., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J. 2009; 20 (11): 1322-1331
Abstract

Emotions are generally thought to arise through the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes. However, prior work has not delineated their relative contributions. In a sample of 20 females, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of negative emotions generated by the bottom-up perception of aversive images and by the top-down interpretation of neutral images as aversive. We found that (a) both types of responses activated the amygdala, although bottom-up responses did so more strongly; (b) bottom-up responses activated systems for attending to and encoding perceptual and affective stimulus properties, whereas top-down responses activated prefrontal regions that represent high-level cognitive interpretations; and (c) self-reported affect correlated with activity in the amygdala during bottom-up responding and with activity in the medial prefrontal cortex during top-down responding. These findings provide a neural foundation for emotion theories that posit multiple kinds of appraisal processes and help to clarify mechanisms underlying clinically relevant forms of emotion dysregulation.

View details for Web of Science ID 000271526700005

View details for PubMedID 19883494
FOR BETTER OR WORSE? STRESS INOCULATION EFFECTS FOR IMPLICIT BUT NOT EXPLICIT ANXIETY DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY Edge, M. D., Ramel, W., Drabant, E. M., Kuo, J. R., Parker, K. J., Gross, J. J. 2009; 26 (9): 831-837
Abstract

Severe early life stress (ELS) is associated with negative outcomes. It is not clear, however, what impact moderate ELS has. A growing stress inoculation literature suggests that moderate (vs. low or high) ELS is associated with diminished behavioral and physiological anxiety responses. At the same time, studies of trait anxiety suggest that moderate (vs. low) ELS is associated with greater self-reported anxiety. This study tested the hypothesis that stress inoculation effects are evident for implicit (nonconscious) but not explicit (conscious) aspects of anxiety.Ninety-seven healthy women were assessed for ELS and explicit anxiety using questionnaires and assessed for implicit anxiety using a version of the Implicit Association Test.Results indicated a quadratic relation between ELS and implicit anxiety, such that moderate ELS was associated with lower implicit anxiety levels than low or high ELS. By contrast, the relation between ELS and explicit anxiety was linear.These findings support the stress inoculation hypothesis and suggest that stress inoculation applies for implicit but not explicit aspects of anxiety.

View details for DOI 10.1002/da.20592

View details for Web of Science ID 000269685500008

View details for PubMedID 19569055

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3364103
Cognitive and Neural Development of Individuated Self-Representation in Children CHILD DEVELOPMENT Ray, R. D., Shelton, A. L., Hollon, N. G., Michel, B. D., Frankel, C. B., Gross, J. J., Gabrieli, J. D. 2009; 80 (4): 1232-1242
Abstract

Processing the self-relevance of information facilitates recall. Similarly, processing close-other-related information facilitates recall to a lesser degree than processing self-relevant information. This memory advantage may be viewed as an index of the degree to which the representation of self is differentiated from representations of close others. To test developmental hypotheses concerning the self, this study examined the relation of memory for self- and mother-referentially processed information in participants age 7-13 years (Experiment 1: N = 37; Experiment 2: N = 14). Memory for words encoded with reference to oneself increases with age, relative to memory for words encoded with reference to one's mother. When used as an individual difference measure, the difference in self versus mother memory correlates with regions of the rostral anterior cingulate associated with affective salience.

View details for Web of Science ID 000268051200019

View details for PubMedID 19630904
Does Expressing Your Emotions Raise or Lower Your Blood Pressure? The Answer Depends on Cultural Context JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Butler, E. A., Lee, T. L., Gross, J. J. 2009; 40 (3): 510-517
View details for DOI 10.1177/0022022109332845

View details for Web of Science ID 000265108800010
The Social Costs of Emotional Suppression: A Prospective Study of the Transition to College JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Srivastava, S., Tamir, M., McGonigal, K. M., John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2009; 96 (4): 883-897
Abstract

There is growing interest in understanding how emotion regulation affects adaptation. The present study examined expressive suppression (which involves inhibiting the overt expression of emotion) and how it affects a critical domain of adaptation, social functioning. This investigation focused on the transition to college, a time that presents a variety of emotional and social challenges. Analyses focused on 2 components of suppression: a stable component, representing individual differences expressed both before and after the transition, and a dynamic component, representing variance specific to the new college context. Both components of suppression predicted lower social support, less closeness to others, and lower social satisfaction. These findings were robustly corroborated across weekly experience reports, self-reports, and peer reports and are consistent with a theoretical framework that defines emotion regulation as a dynamic process shaped by both stable person factors and environmental demands.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0014755

View details for Web of Science ID 000264489400012

View details for PubMedID 19309209
Individual Differences in Typical Reappraisal Use Predict Amygdala and Prefrontal Responses BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY Drabant, E. M., McRae, K., Manuck, S. B., Hariri, A. R., Gross, J. J. 2009; 65 (5): 367-373
Abstract

Participants who are instructed to use reappraisal to downregulate negative emotion show decreased amygdala responses and increased prefrontal responses. However, it is not known whether individual differences in the tendency to use reappraisal manifests in similar neural responses when individuals are spontaneously confronted with negative situations. Such spontaneous emotion regulation might play an important role in normal and pathological responses to the emotional challenges of everyday life.Fifty-six healthy women completed a blood oxygenation-level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging challenge paradigm involving the perceptual processing of emotionally negative facial expressions. Participants also completed measures of typical emotion regulation use, trait anxiety, and neuroticism.Greater use of reappraisal in everyday life was related to decreased amygdala activity and increased prefrontal and parietal activity during the processing of negative emotional facial expressions. These associations were not attributable to variation in trait anxiety, neuroticism, or the use of another common form of emotion regulation, namely suppression.These findings suggest that, like instructed reappraisal, individual differences in reappraisal use are associated with decreased activation in ventral emotion generative regions and increased activation in prefrontal control regions in response to negative stimuli. Such individual differences in emotion regulation might predict successful coping with emotional challenges as well as the onset of affective disorders.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.007

View details for Web of Science ID 000263455300003

View details for PubMedID 18930182
Neural Bases of Social Anxiety Disorder Emotional Reactivity and Cognitive Regulation During Social and Physical Threat ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY Goldin, P. R., Manber, T., Hakimi, S., Canli, T., Gross, J. J. 2009; 66 (2): 170-180
Abstract

Social anxiety disorder is thought to involve emotional hyperreactivity, cognitive distortions, and ineffective emotion regulation. While the neural bases of emotional reactivity to social stimuli have been described, the neural bases of emotional reactivity and cognitive regulation during social and physical threat, and their relationship to social anxiety symptom severity, have yet to be investigated.To investigate behavioral and neural correlates of emotional reactivity and cognitive regulation in patients and controls during processing of social and physical threat stimuli.Participants were trained to implement cognitive-linguistic regulation of emotional reactivity induced by social (harsh facial expressions) and physical (violent scenes) threat while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging and providing behavioral ratings of negative emotion experience.Academic psychology department.Fifteen adults with social anxiety disorder and 17 demographically matched healthy controls.Blood oxygen level-dependent signal and negative emotion ratings.Behaviorally, patients reported greater negative emotion than controls during social and physical threat but showed equivalent reduction in negative emotion following cognitive regulation. Neurally, viewing social threat resulted in greater emotion-related neural responses in patients than controls, with social anxiety symptom severity related to activity in a network of emotion- and attention-processing regions in patients only. Viewing physical threat produced no between-group differences. Regulation during social threat resulted in greater cognitive and attention regulation-related brain activation in controls compared with patients. Regulation during physical threat produced greater cognitive control-related response (ie, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) in patients compared with controls.Compared with controls, patients demonstrated exaggerated negative emotion reactivity and reduced cognitive regulation-related neural activation, specifically for social threat stimuli. These findings help to elucidate potential neural mechanisms of emotion regulation that might serve as biomarkers for interventions for social anxiety disorder.

View details for Web of Science ID 000262992200009

View details for PubMedID 19188539
Mindfulness meditation training and selfreferential processing in social anxiety disorder: Behavioral and neural effects Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy Goldin, P. R., Ramel, W., Gross, J. J. 2009; 23: 242-257
View details for DOI 10.1891/0889-8391.23.3.242
Reappraisa Oxford companion to the affective sciences Giuliani, N., Gross, J. J. edited by Sander, D., Scherer, K. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.. 2009: 329–330
Regulation of emotion. Oxford companion to the affective sciences McRae, K., Gross, J. J. edited by Sander, D., Scherer, K. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 2009: 337–339
Emotion and Emotion Regulation: Integrating Individual and Social Levels of Analysis EMOTION REVIEW Butler, E. A., Gross, J. J. 2009; 1 (1): 86-87
View details for DOI 10.1177/1754073908099131

View details for Web of Science ID 000208386500017
Using an emotion regulation framework to predict the outcomes of emotional labour Research on emotion in organizations: Emotions in groups, organizations and cultures Mikolajczak, M., Tran, V., Brotheridge, C., Gross, J. J. edited by Härtel, C. E., Ashkanasy, N. M., Zerbe, W. J. Bingley, UK: Emerald. 2009: 245–273
Loving-Kindness Meditation Increases Social Connectedness EMOTION Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., Gross, J. J. 2008; 8 (5): 720-724
Abstract

The need for social connection is a fundamental human motive, and it is increasingly clear that feeling socially connected confers mental and physical health benefits. However, in many cultures, societal changes are leading to growing social distrust and alienation. Can feelings of social connection and positivity toward others be increased? Is it possible to self-generate these feelings? In this study, the authors used a brief loving-kindness meditation exercise to examine whether social connection could be created toward strangers in a controlled laboratory context. Compared with a closely matched control task, even just a few minutes of loving-kindness meditation increased feelings of social connection and positivity toward novel individuals on both explicit and implicit levels. These results suggest that this easily implemented technique may help to increase positive social emotions and decrease social isolation.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0013237

View details for Web of Science ID 000259842500014

View details for PubMedID 18837623
Self-representation in social anxiety disorder: Linguistic analysis of autobiographical narratives BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH AND THERAPY Anderson, B., Goldin, P. R., Kurita, K., Gross, J. J. 2008; 46 (10): 1119-1125
Abstract

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) posit aberrant beliefs about the social self as a key psychological mechanism that maintains fear of negative evaluation in social and performance situations. Consequently, a distorted self-view should be evident when recalling painful autobiographical social memories, as reflected in linguistic expression, negative self-beliefs, and emotion and avoidance. To test this hypothesis, 42 adults diagnosed with SAD and 27 non-psychiatric healthy controls (HC) composed autobiographical narratives of distinct social anxiety related situations, generated negative self-beliefs (NSB), and provided emotion and avoidance ratings. Although narratives were matched for initial emotional intensity and present vividness, linguistic analyses demonstrated that, compared to HC, SAD employed more self-referential, anxiety, and sensory words, and made fewer references to other people. There were no differences in the number of self-referential NSB identified by SAD and HC. Social anxiety symptom severity, however, was associated with greater self-referential NSB in SAD only. SAD reported greater current self-conscious emotions when recalling autobiographical social situations, and greater active avoidance of similar situations than did HC. These findings support cognitive models of SAD, and suggest that autobiographical memory of social situations in SAD may influence current and future thinking, emotion, and behavioral avoidance.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.brat.2008.07.001

View details for Web of Science ID 000259888500003

View details for PubMedID 18722589
Cardiovascular costs of emotion suppression cross ethnic lines INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Roberts, N. A., Levenson, R. W., Gross, J. J. 2008; 70 (1): 82-87
Abstract

Previous research has shown that inhibiting emotion-expressive behavior (emotion suppression) leads to increased sympathetic activation of the cardiovascular system [Gross, J.J. and Levenson, R.W. (1993). Emotional suppression: physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 64(6), 970-986]. Ethnic differences have been reported in how frequently suppression is used as an emotion regulation strategy [Gross, J.J. and John, O. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 85(2), 348-362]; however, it remains unknown whether there are ethnic differences in the physiological consequences of suppression. To test this, 168 participants from four ethnic groups (African American, Chinese American, European American, Mexican American) watched a disgust-eliciting film clip; half were instructed to suppress their emotions and half simply watched the film. Consistent with previous research, suppression was associated with decreased facial behavior, increased cardiovascular activation, and no impact on subjective emotional experience. Ethnicity failed to moderate these effects, indicating the generality of the cardiovascular consequences of emotion suppression across ethnic background.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.06.003

View details for Web of Science ID 000260125200011

View details for PubMedID 18621086
The Up- and Down-Regulation of Amusement: Experiential, Behavioral, and Autonomic Consequences EMOTION Giuliani, N. R., McRae, K., Gross, J. J. 2008; 8 (5): 714-719
Abstract

A growing body of research has examined the regulation of negative emotions. However, little is known about the physiological processes underlying the regulation of positive emotions, such as when amusement is enhanced during periods of stress or attenuated in the pursuit of social goals. The aim of this study was to examine the psychophysiological consequences of the cognitive up- and down-regulation of amusement. To address this goal, participants viewed brief, amusing film clips while measurements of experience, behavior, and peripheral physiology were collected. Using an event-related design, participants viewed each film under the instructions either to (a) watch, (b) use cognitive reappraisal to increase amusement, or (c) use cognitive reappraisal to decrease amusement. Findings indicated that emotion experience, emotion-expressive behavior, and autonomic physiology (including heart rate, respiration, and sympathetic nervous system activation) were enhanced and diminished in accordance with regulation instructions. This finding is a critical extension of the growing literature on the voluntary regulation of emotion, and has the potential to help us better understand how people use humor in the service of coping and social goals.

View details for DOI 10.1037/a0013236

View details for Web of Science ID 000259842500013

View details for PubMedID 18837622
The hidden-zero effect - Representing a single choice as an extended sequence reduces impulsive choice PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Magen, E., Dweck, C. S., Gross, J. J. 2008; 19 (7): 648-649
View details for Web of Science ID 000257785000006

View details for PubMedID 18727778
Misery is not miserly: Sad and self-focused individuals spend more PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Cryder, C. E., Lerner, J. S., Gross, J. J., Dahl, R. E. 2008; 19 (6): 525-530
Abstract

Misery is not miserly: Sadness increases the amount of money that decision makers give up to acquire a commodity. The present research investigated when and why the misery-is-not-miserly effect occurs. Drawing on William James's concept of the material self, we tested a model specifying relationships among sadness, self-focus, and the amount of money that decision makers spend. Consistent with our Jamesian hypothesis, results demonstrated that the misery-is-not-miserly effect occurs only when self-focus is high. That is, self-focus moderates the effect of sadness on spending. Moreover, mediational analyses revealed that, at sufficiently high levels, self-focus mediates (explains) the relationship between sadness and spending. Because the study used real commodities and real money, the results hold implications for everyday decisions, as well as implications for the development of theory. For example, economic theories of spending may benefit from incorporating psychological theories -- specifically, theories of emotion and the self -- into their models.

View details for Web of Science ID 000256636800001

View details for PubMedID 18578840
Real-time classification of evoked emotions using facial feature tracking and physiological responses INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER STUDIES Bailenson, J. N., Pontikakis, E. D., Mauss, I. B., Gross, J. J., Jabon, M. E., Hutcherson, C. A., Nass, C., John, O. 2008; 66 (5): 303-317
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2007.10.011

View details for Web of Science ID 000255697100001
Cognitive emotion regulation: Insights from social cognitive and affective neuroscience CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. 2008; 17 (2): 153-158
View details for Web of Science ID 000254807700018
Hedonic and instrumental motives in anger regulation PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Tamir, M., Mitchell, C., Gross, J. J. 2008; 19 (4): 324-328
Abstract

What motivates individuals to regulate their emotions? One answer, which has been highlighted in emotion-regulation research, is that individuals are motivated by short-term hedonic goals (e.g., the motivation to feel pleasure). Another answer, however, is that individuals are motivated by instrumental goals (e.g., the motivation to perform certain behaviors). We suggest that both answers have merit. To demonstrate the role instrumental goals may play in emotion regulation, we pitted short-term hedonic motives and instrumental motives against each other, by testing whether individuals were motivated to experience a potentially useful, albeit unpleasant, emotion. We found that (a) individuals preferred activities that would increase their level of anger (but not their level of excitement) when they were anticipating confrontational, but not nonconfrontational, tasks and that (b) anger improved performance in a confrontational, but not a nonconfrontational, task. These findings support a functional view of emotion regulation, and demonstrate that in certain contexts, individuals may choose to experience emotions that are instrumental, despite short-term hedonic costs.

View details for Web of Science ID 000254792000004

View details for PubMedID 18399883
Gender differences in emotion regulation: An fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS McRae, K., Ochsner, K. N., Mauss, I. B., Gabrieli, J. J., Gross, J. J. 2008; 11 (2): 143-162
View details for DOI 10.1177/1368430207088035

View details for Web of Science ID 000256264400002
The neural bases of emotion regulation: Reappraisal and suppression of negative emotion BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY Goldin, P. R., McRae, K., Ramel, W., Gross, J. J. 2008; 63 (6): 577-586
Abstract

Emotion regulation strategies are thought to differ in when and how they influence the emotion-generative process. However, no study to date has directly probed the neural bases of two contrasting (e.g., cognitive versus behavioral) emotion regulation strategies. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine cognitive reappraisal (a cognitive strategy thought to have its impact early in the emotion-generative process) and expressive suppression (a behavioral strategy thought to have its impact later in the emotion-generative process).Seventeen women viewed 15 sec neutral and negative emotion-eliciting films under four conditions--watch-neutral, watch-negative, reappraise-negative, and suppress-negative--while providing emotion experience ratings and having their facial expressions videotaped.Reappraisal resulted in early (0-4.5 sec) prefrontal cortex (PFC) responses, decreased negative emotion experience, and decreased amygdala and insular responses. Suppression produced late (10.5-15 sec) PFC responses, decreased negative emotion behavior and experience, but increased amygdala and insular responses.These findings demonstrate the differential efficacy of reappraisal and suppression on emotional experience, facial behavior, and neural response and highlight intriguing differences in the temporal dynamics of these two emotion regulation strategies.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.031

View details for Web of Science ID 000253618300008

View details for PubMedID 17888411
Attention and emotion influence the relationship between extraversion and neural response SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE Hutcherson, C. A., Goldin, P. R., Ramel, W., McRae, K., Gross, J. J. 2008; 3 (1): 71-79
Abstract

Extraversion has been shown to positively correlate with activation within the ventral striatum, amygdala and other dopaminergically innervated, reward-sensitive regions. These regions are implicated in emotional responding, in a manner sensitive to attentional focus. However, no study has investigated the interaction among extraversion, emotion and attention. We used fMRI and dynamic, evocative film clips to elicit amusement and sadness in a sample of 28 women. Participants were instructed either to respond naturally (n = 14) or to attend to and continuously rate their emotions (n = 14) while watching the films. Contrary to expectations, striatal response was negatively associated with extraversion during amusement, regardless of attention. A negative association was also observed during sad films, but only when attending to emotion. These findings suggest that attentional focus does not influence the relationship between extraversion and neural response to positive (amusing) stimuli but does impact the response to negative (sad) stimuli.

View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nsm040

View details for Web of Science ID 000256174000009

View details for PubMedID 19015097
All in the mind's eye? Anger rumination and reappraisal JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Ray, R. D., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2008; 94 (1): 133-145
Abstract

Research on rumination has demonstrated that compared with distraction, rumination intensifies and prolongs negative emotion. However, rumination and distraction differ both in what one thinks about and how one thinks about it. Do the negative outcomes of rumination result from how people think about negative events or simply that they think about them at all? To address this question, participants in 2 studies recalled a recent anger-provoking event and then thought about it in 1 of 2 ways: by ruminating or by reappraising. The authors examined the impact of these strategies on subsequent ratings of anger experience (Study 1) as well as on perseverative thinking and physiological responding over time (Study 2). Relative to reappraisal, rumination led to greater anger experience, more cognitive perseveration, and greater sympathetic nervous system activation. These findings provide compelling new evidence that how one thinks about an emotional event can shape the emotional response one has.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.133

View details for Web of Science ID 000251826500010

View details for PubMedID 18179323
Emotion regulation Handbook of emotions Gross, J. J. edited by Lewis, M., Haviland-Jones, J. M., Barret, L. F. New York, NY: Guilford. 2008; 3rd: 497–512
Culture and automatic emotion regulation Regulating emotions: Culture, social necessity, and biological inheritance Mauss, I. B., Bunge, S. A., Gross, J. J. edited by Vanderkerckhove, M., Scheve, C. V., Ismer, S., Jung, S., Kronast, S. Oxford, England: Blackwell.. 2008: 39–60
Emotion and emotion regulation: Personality processes and individual differences. Handbook of personality: Theory and research Gross, J. J. edited by John, O. P., Robins, R. W., Pervin, L. A. New York, NY: Guilford. 2008; 3rd: 701–724
German version of the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire DIAGNOSTICA Mohiyeddini, C., John, O., Gross, J. J. 2008; 54 (3): 117-128
View details for DOI 10.1026/0012-1924.54.3.117

View details for Web of Science ID 000257585700001
Emotion and emotion regulation: A map for psychotherapy researchers CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY-SCIENCE AND PRACTICE Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J. 2007; 14 (4): 323-328
View details for Web of Science ID 000250939700002
Individual differences in cognitive reappraisal: Experiential and physiological responses to an anger provocation INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Mauss, I. B., Cook, C. L., Cheng, J. Y., Gross, J. J. 2007; 66 (2): 116-124
Abstract

Effective emotion regulation is widely seen as vital for healthy adaptation. There remains considerable uncertainty, however, as to what constitutes effective emotion regulation. One promising emotion regulation strategy is cognitive reappraisal, which involves reframing emotional events so as to decrease their emotional impact. This strategy is useful because it seems to enable individuals to down-regulate negative feelings without the physiological costs that are associated with other forms of emotion regulation. It remains unknown, however, whether individual differences in the use of reappraisal are associated with experiential and physiological responses to anger-inducing situations. To examine this question, individuals either high or low in reappraisal were made angry in the laboratory while emotion experience and cardiovascular responses were assessed. Results indicated that compared to low reappraisers, high reappraisers had a more adaptive profile of emotion experience and cardiovascular responding. Specifically, across baseline and provocation periods, high reappraisers reported less anger, less negative emotion, and more positive emotion, showed greater cardiac output and ventricular contractility, and lesser total peripheral resistance. These findings suggest that reappraisers are successful at down-regulating negative emotions, even in the context of a potent negative emotion such as anger.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.03.017

View details for Web of Science ID 000251432600005

View details for PubMedID 17543404
Depression and emotional reactivity: Variation among Asian Americans of east Asian descent and European Americans JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Chentsova-Dutton, Y. E., Chu, J. P., Tsai, J. L., Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2007; 116 (4): 776-785
Abstract

Studies of Western samples (e.g., European Americans [EAs]) suggest that depressed individuals tend to show diminished emotional reactivity (J. G. Gehricke & A. J. Fridlund, 2002; G. E. Schwartz, P. L. Fair, P. Salt, M. R. Mandel, & G. L. Klerman, 1976a, 1976b). Do these findings generalize to individuals oriented to other cultures (e.g., East Asian cultures)? The authors compared the emotional reactions (i.e., reports of emotional experience, facial behavior, and physiological reactivity) of depressed and nondepressed EAs and Asian Americans of East Asian descent (AAs) to sad and amusing films. Their results were consistent with previous findings: Depressed EAs showed a pattern of diminished reactivity to the sad film (less crying, less intense reports of sadness) compared with nondepressed participants. In contrast, depressed AAs showed a pattern of heightened emotional reactivity (greater crying) compared with nondepressed participants. Across cultural groups, depressed and nondepressed participants did not differ in their reports of amusement or facial behavior during the amusing film. Physiological reactivity to the film clips did not differ between depressed and control participants for either cultural group. Thus, although depression may influence particular aspects of emotional reactivity across cultures (e.g., crying), the specific direction of this influence may depend on prevailing cultural norms regarding emotional expression.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0021-843X.116.4.776

View details for Web of Science ID 000250937700010

View details for PubMedID 18020723
Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Murphy, M. C., Steele, C. M., Gross, J. J. 2007; 18 (10): 879-885
Abstract

This study examined the cues hypothesis, which holds that situational cues, such as a setting's features and organization, can make potential targets vulnerable to social identity threat. Objective and subjective measures of identity threat were collected from male and female math, science, and engineering (MSE) majors who watched an MSE conference video depicting either an unbalanced ratio of men to women or a balanced ratio. Women who viewed the unbalanced video exhibited more cognitive and physiological vigilance, and reported a lower sense of belonging and less desire to participate in the conference, than did women who viewed the gender-balanced video. Men were unaffected by this situational cue. The implications for understanding vulnerability to social identity threat, particularly among women in MSE settings, are discussed.

View details for Web of Science ID 000249827200007

View details for PubMedID 17894605
Automatic emotion regulation during anger provocation JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Mauss, I. B., Cook, C. L., Gross, J. J. 2007; 43 (5): 698-711
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jesp.2006.07.003

View details for Web of Science ID 000249173200002
Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory response patterns to fear- and sadness-inducing films 12th Annual Meeting of the Society-for-Psychophysiological-Research Kreibig, S. D., Wilhelm, F. H., Roth, W. T., Gross, J. J. WILEY-BLACKWELL. 2007: 787–806
Abstract

Responses to fear- and sadness-inducing films were assessed using a broad range of cardiovascular (heart rate, T-wave amplitude, low- and high-frequency heart rate variability, stroke volume, preejection period, left-ventricular ejection time, Heather index, blood pressure, pulse amplitude and transit time, and finger temperature), electrodermal (level, response rate, and response amplitude), and respiratory (rate, tidal volume and its variability, inspiratory flow rate, duty cycle, and end-tidal pCO(2)) measures. Subjective emotional experience and facial behavior (Corrugator Supercilii and Zygomaticus Major EMG) served as control measures. Results indicated robust differential physiological response patterns for fear, sadness, and neutral (mean classification accuracy 85%). Findings are discussed in terms of the fight-flight and conservation-withdrawal responses and possible limitations of a valence-arousal categorization of emotion in affective space.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00550.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000249002200013

View details for PubMedID 17598878
Same situation - Different emotions: How appraisals shape our emotions EMOTION Siemer, M., Mauss, I., Gross, J. J. 2007; 7 (3): 592-600
Abstract

Appraisal theories of emotion hold that it is the way a person interprets a situation--rather than the situation itself--that gives rise to one emotion rather than another emotion (or no emotion at all). Unfortunately, most prior tests of this foundational hypothesis have simultaneously varied situations and appraisals, making an evaluation of this assumption difficult. In the present study, participants responded to a standardized laboratory situation with a variety of different emotions. Appraisals predicted the intensity of individual emotions across participants. In addition, subgroups of participants with similar emotional response profiles made comparable appraisals. Together, these findings suggest that appraisals may be necessary and sufficient to determine different emotional reactions toward a particular situation.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.7.3.592

View details for Web of Science ID 000248532900013

View details for PubMedID 17683215
Business or pleasure? Utilitarian versus hedonic considerations in emotion regulation EMOTION Tamir, M., Chiu, C., Gross, J. J. 2007; 7 (3): 546-554
Abstract

It is widely accepted that emotions have utilitarian as well as hedonic consequences. Nevertheless, it is typically assumed that individuals regulate emotions to obtain hedonic, rather than utilitarian, benefits. In this study, the authors tested whether individuals represent the utility of pleasant and unpleasant emotions and whether they would be motivated to experience unpleasant emotions if they believed they could be useful. First, findings revealed that participants explicitly viewed approach emotions (e.g., excitement) as useful for obtaining rewards, but viewed avoidance emotions (e.g., worry) as useful for avoiding threats. Second, this pattern was replicated in implicit representations of emotional utility, which were dissociated from explicit ones. Third, implicit, but not explicit, representations of emotional utility predicted motives for emotion regulation. When anticipating a threatening task, participants who viewed emotions such as worry and fear as useful for avoiding threats preferred to engage in activities that were likely to increase worry and fear (vs. excitement) before the task. These findings demonstrate that utilitarian considerations play an important, if underappreciated, role in emotion regulation.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.7.3.546

View details for Web of Science ID 000248532900009

View details for PubMedID 17683211
Harnessing the need for immediate gratification: Cognitive reconstrual modulates the reward value of temptations EMOTION Magen, E., Gross, J. J. 2007; 7 (2): 415-428
Abstract

Many of us succumb to temptations, despite knowing that we will later regret doing so. How can such behavior be avoided? In three studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that reconstruing temptation as a test of a valued internal quality ("willpower") would decrease the tendency to succumb by reducing the appeal of the temptation. In Study 1, participants who construed a challenging handgrip task as a test of willpower resisted the temptation to terminate the painful task longer than participants who did not. In Study 2, participants performed a handgrip task twice. Only participants who changed their construal of the task into a test of willpower improved their performance. In Study 3, participants took a timed math test while being tempted by comedy clips. Participants who reconstrued the situation as willpower test compared with participants who did not, (a) enjoyed the videos less, and (b) were better able to resist the tempting videos. These studies demonstrate that cognitive reconstrual can be used to modify reward contingencies, so that succumbing to temptation becomes less appealing, and resisting temptation becomes more appealing.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.415

View details for Web of Science ID 000246412200017

View details for PubMedID 17516818
Does repressive coping promote resilience? Affective-autonomic response discrepancy during bereavement JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Coifman, K. G., Bonanno, G. A., Ray, R. D., Gross, J. J. 2007; 92 (4): 745-758
Abstract

Traditional theories of coping emphasize the value of attending to and expressing negative emotion while recovering from traumatic life events. However, recent evidence suggests that the tendency to direct attention away from negative affective experience (i.e., repressive coping) may promote resilience following extremely aversive events (e.g., the death of a spouse). The current study extends this line of investigation by showing that both bereaved and nonbereaved individuals who exhibited repressive coping behavior--as measured by the discrepancy between affective experience and sympathetic nervous system response--had fewer symptoms of psychopathology, experienced fewer health problems and somatic complaints, and were rated as better adjusted by close friends than those who did not exhibit repressive coping. Results are discussed in terms of recent developments in cognitive and neuroimaging research suggesting that repressive coping may serve a protective function.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.92.4.745

View details for Web of Science ID 000245641700012

View details for PubMedID 17469956
Implicit theories of emotion: Affective and social outcomes across a major life transition JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Tamir, M., John, O. P., Srivastava, S., Gross, J. J. 2007; 92 (4): 731-744
Abstract

The authors demonstrate that people differ systematically in their implicit theories of emotion: Some view emotions as fixed (entity theorists), whereas others view emotions as more malleable (incremental theorists). Using a longitudinal and multimethod design, the authors show that implicit theories of emotion, as distinct from intelligence, are linked to both emotional and social adjustment during the transition to college. Before entering college, individuals who held entity (vs. incremental) theories of emotion had lower emotion regulation self-efficacy and made less use of cognitive reappraisal (Part 1). Throughout their first academic term, entity theorists of emotion had less favorable emotion experiences and received decreasing social support from their new friends, as evidenced by weekly diaries (Part 2). By the end of freshman year, entity theorists of emotion had lower well-being, greater depressive symptoms, and lower social adjustment as indicated in both self- and peer-reports (Part 3). The emotional, but not the social, outcomes were partially mediated by individual differences in emotion regulation self-efficacy (Part 4). Together, these studies demonstrate that implicit theories of emotion can have important long-term implications for socioemotional functioning.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.92.4.731

View details for Web of Science ID 000245641700011

View details for PubMedID 17469955
Emotion regulation and culture: Are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific? EMOTION Butler, E. A., Lee, T. L., Gross, J. J. 2007; 7 (1): 30-48
Abstract

Emotional suppression has been associated with generally negative social consequences (Butler et al., 2003; Gross & John, 2003). A cultural perspective suggests, however, that these consequences may be moderated by cultural values. We tested this hypothesis in a two-part study, and found that, for Americans holding Western-European values, habitual suppression was associated with self-protective goals and negative emotion. In addition, experimentally elicited suppression resulted in reduced interpersonal responsiveness during face-to-face interaction, along with negative partner-perceptions and hostile behavior. These deleterious effects were reduced when individuals with more Asian values suppressed, and these reductions were mediated by cultural differences in the responsiveness of the suppressors. These findings suggest that many of suppression's negative social impacts may be moderated by cultural values.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.30

View details for Web of Science ID 000244491500004

View details for PubMedID 17352561
The experience of emotion ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY Barrett, L. F., Mesquita, B., Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. 2007; 58: 373-403
Abstract

Experiences of emotion are content-rich events that emerge at the level of psychological description, but must be causally constituted by neurobiological processes. This chapter outlines an emerging scientific agenda for understanding what these experiences feel like and how they arise. We review the available answers to what is felt (i.e., the content that makes up an experience of emotion) and how neurobiological processes instantiate these properties of experience. These answers are then integrated into a broad framework that describes, in psychological terms, how the experience of emotion emerges from more basic processes. We then discuss the role of such experiences in the economy of the mind and behavior.

View details for DOI 10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085709

View details for Web of Science ID 000243900200015

View details for PubMedID 17002554
Automatic emotion regulation Social and Personality Psychology Compass Mauss, I. B., Bunge, S. A., Gross, J. J. 2007: 146-167
View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00005.x
Emotion regulation: Conceptual foundations Handbook of emotion regulation Gross, J. J., Thompson, R. A. edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 2007: 3–24
Emotion elicitation using films The handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment Rottenberg, J., Ray, R. R., Gross, J. J. edited by Coan, J. A., Allen, J. J. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.. 2007: 9–28
Individual differences in emotion regulation strategies: Links to global trait, dynamic, and social cognitive constructs Handbook of emotion regulation John, O. P., Gross, J. J. edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 2007: 351–372
Psychology Gleitman, H., Reisberg, D., Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Norton. 2007
On the automaticity of emotion Social psychology and the unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes Barrett, L. F., Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. edited by Bargh, J. New York, NY: Psychology Press. 2007: 173–217
The neural architecture of emotion regulation Handbook of emotion regulation Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 2007: 87–109
Handbook of emotion regulation edited by Gross, J. J. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 2007
Bridges yet to come: Future directions for integrating affective and clinical science. Emotion and psychopathology: Bridging affective and clinical science. Rottenberg, J., Johnson, S. L., Gross, J. J. edited by Rottenberg, J., Johnson, S. L. Washington, DC: APA Books.. 2007: 305–308
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, emotion, and emotion regulation during social interaction PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Butler, E. A., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2006; 43 (6): 612-622
Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) figures prominently in emotional responding, but its exact role remains unclear. The present study tests two hypotheses: (1) Between-person differences in resting RSA are related to emotional reactivity, and (2) within-person changes in RSA are related to regulatory efforts. Pairs of women watched an upsetting film and discussed it. One woman in each of the experimental dyads was asked to either suppress or to reappraise during the conversation. Their partners and both members of the control dyads conversed naturally. Between-person differences in resting RSA were assessed with paced breathing, and within-person changes in RSA were calculated from baseline to the conversation accounting for respiration. Women with higher resting RSA experienced and expressed more negative emotion, and women who attempted to regulate their emotions either by suppressing or reappraising showed larger increases in RSA than controls.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00467.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000241626200011

View details for PubMedID 17076818
Personality and emotional memory: How regulating emotion impairs memory for emotional events JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY Richards, J. M., Gross, J. J. 2006; 40 (5): 631-651
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jrp.2005.07.002

View details for Web of Science ID 000241203000010
Optimism in close relationships: How seeing things in a positive light makes them so JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Srivastava, S., McGonigal, K. M., Richards, J. M., Butler, E. A., Gross, J. J. 2006; 91 (1): 143-153
Abstract

Does expecting positive outcomes--especially in important life domains such as relationships--make these positive outcomes more likely? In a longitudinal study of dating couples, the authors tested whether optimists (who have a cognitive disposition to expect positive outcomes) and their romantic partners are more satisfied in their relationships, and if so, whether this is due to optimists perceiving greater support from their partners. In cross-sectional analyses, both optimists and their partners indicated greater relationship satisfaction, an effect that was mediated by optimists' greater perceived support. When the couples engaged in a conflict conversation, optimists and their partners saw each other as engaging more constructively during the conflict, which in turn led both partners to feel that the conflict was better resolved 1 week later. In a 1-year follow-up, men's optimism predicted relationship status. Effects of optimism were mediated by the optimists' perceived support, which appears to promote a variety of beneficial processes in romantic relationships.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.91.1.143

View details for Web of Science ID 000239139900010

View details for PubMedID 16834485
How to bite your tongue without blowing your top: Implicit evaluation of emotion regulation predicts affective responding to anger provocation PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Mauss, I. B., Evers, C., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2006; 32 (5): 589-602
Abstract

People frequently have to control their emotions to function in life. However, mounting evidence suggests that deliberate emotion regulation often is costly. This presents a dilemma: Is it better to let emotions go or to pay the price of exerting costly control? In two studies, the authors explore whether emotion regulatory processes associated with implicit positive evaluation of emotion regulation might provide the benefits of successful emotion regulation without the costs. In Study 1, the authors introduce a measure of implicit evaluation of emotion regulation (ER-IAT). Study 2 examined whether this measure is associated with actual emotional responses to an anger provocation. It was found that greater ER-IAT scores were associated with lesser anger experience, fewer negative thoughts, lessened self-reported effortful emotion regulation, and an adaptive pattern of cardiovascular responding. These findings suggest that implicit positive evaluation of emotion regulation is associated with successful, automatic, and physiologically adaptive down-regulation of anger.

View details for DOI 10.1177/0146167205083841

View details for Web of Science ID 000236850100003

View details for PubMedID 16702153
Expressive suppression during an acoustic startle PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Hagemann, T., Levenson, R. W., Gross, J. J. 2006; 43 (1): 104-112
Abstract

Previous studies have shown that inhibiting negative or positive emotion-expressive behavior leads to increased sympathetic activation. Inhibiting facial behavior while in an affectively neutral state has no such physiological consequences. This suggests that there may be something special about inhibiting emotion-expressive behavior. To test the boundary conditions of the suppression effect, acoustic startles were delivered to 252 participants in three experimental groups. Participants in one group received unanticipated startles. Participants in the other two groups were told that after a 20-s countdown a loud noise would occur; participants in one of these groups were further told to inhibit their expressive behavior. Results indicated that startle suppression increased sympathetic activation. These findings extend prior work on emotion suppression, and suggest that inhibiting other biologically based responses also may be physiologically taxing.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00382.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000236634400011

View details for PubMedID 16629690
Emotion regulation in everyday life Emotion regulation in couples and families: Pathways to dysfunction and health Gross, J. J., Richards, J. M., John, O. P. edited by Simpson, J. A., Hughles, J. N. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. 2006: 13–35
Emotion context insensitivity in major depressive disorder JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2005; 114 (4): 627-639
Abstract

The present study tested 3 competing views of how depression alters emotional reactivity: positive attenuation (reduced positive), negative potentiation (increased negative), and emotion context insensitivity (ECI; reduced positive and negative). Normative and idiographic stimuli that elicited happy, sad, and neutral states were presented to currently depressed, formerly depressed, and healthy control individuals while experiential, behavioral, and autonomic responses were measured. Currently depressed individuals reported less sadness reactivity and less happiness experience across all conditions than did the other participants, and they exhibited a more dysphoric response to idiographic than to normative stimuli. Overall, data provide partial support for the positive attenuation and ECI views. Depression may produce mood-state-dependent changes in emotional reactivity that are most pronounced in emotion experience reports.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0021-843X.114.4.627

View details for Web of Science ID 000233760700014

View details for PubMedID 16351385
Mechanisms of virtual reality exposure therapy: The role of the behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition systems APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK Wilhelm, F. H., Pfaltz, M. C., Gross, J. J., Mauss, I. B., Kim, S. I., Wiederhold, B. K. 2005; 30 (3): 271-284
Abstract

J. A. Gray's (1975) theory distinguishes between two motivational systems, which he refers to as the behavioral activation system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS). D. C. Fowles (1980) has shown that heart rate responses reflect activity of the BAS, and electrodermal responses reflect activity of the BIS. Both BAS and BIS are reliably activated during in-vivo exposure to fearful situations (F. H. Wilhelm & W. T. Roth, 1998). However, due to the constraints imposed by virtual reality (VR), we hypothesized that VR exposure to fearful situations would activate the BIS alone. To test this hypothesis, a VR free-standing elevator simulation was presented to participants selected for high and low fear of heights. As predicted, the high-anxious group strongly responded electrodermally (effect size d = 1.53), but showed only minimal HR elevations during exposure (d = 0.12), and little other cardiovascular or respiratory changes. The low-anxious control group showed little electrodermal and HR reactivity (d = 0.28 and 0.12). A comparison with data from a previous study demonstrated that this pattern was in stark contrast to the large electrodermal and cardiovascular response observed during situational in-vivo exposure outside the laboratory. We conclude that the BIS, but not BAS, is selectively activated during VR exposure, causing discordance between self-report and commonly used physiological measures of anxiety. Results are discussed within the framework of E. B. Foa & M. J. Kozak's (1986) emotional processing theory of fear modification, suggesting different mechanisms underlying VR and in-vivo exposure treatments.

View details for DOI 10.1007/s10484-005-6383-1

View details for Web of Science ID 000231937900009

View details for PubMedID 16167191
Putting the 'I' and the 'Me' in emotion regulation: Reply to Northoff TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. 2005; 9 (9): 409-410
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2005.06.004

View details for Web of Science ID 000232251000004
Attention and emotion: Does rating emotion alter neural responses to amusing and sad films? NEUROIMAGE Hutcherson, C. A., Goldin, P. R., Ochsner, K. N., Gabrieli, J. D., Barrett, L. F., Gross, J. J. 2005; 27 (3): 656-668
Abstract

Functional neuroimaging of affective systems often includes subjective self-report of the affective response. Although self-report provides valuable information regarding participants' affective responses, prior studies have raised the concern that the attentional demands of reporting on affective experience may obscure neural activations reflecting more natural affective responses. In the present study, we used potent emotion-eliciting amusing and sad films, employed a novel method of continuous self-reported rating of emotion experience, and compared the impact of rating with passive viewing of amusing and sad films. Subjective rating of ongoing emotional responses did not decrease either self-reported experience of emotion or neural activations relative to passive viewing in any brain regions. Rating, relative to passive viewing, produced increased activity in anterior cingulate, insula, and several other areas associated with introspection of emotion. These results support the use of continuous emotion measures and emotionally engaging films to study the dynamics of emotional responding and suggest that there may be some contexts in which the attention to emotion induced by reporting emotion experience does not disrupt emotional responding either behaviorally or neurally.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.04.028

View details for Web of Science ID 000231543600017

View details for PubMedID 15946863
The neural bases of amusement and sadness: A comparison of block contrast and subject-specific emotion intensity regression approaches NEUROIMAGE Goldin, P. R., Hutcherson, C. A., Ochsner, K. N., Glover, G. H., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J. 2005; 27 (1): 26-36
Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have made substantial progress in elucidating the neural bases of emotion. However, few studies to date have directly addressed the subject-specific, time-varying nature of emotional responding. In the present study, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural bases of two common emotions--amusement and sadness--using both (a) a stimulus-based block contrast approach and (b) a subject-specific regression analysis using continuous ratings of emotional intensity. Thirteen women viewed a set of nine 2-min amusing, sad, or neutral film clips two times. During the first viewing, participants watched the film stimuli. During the second viewing, they made continuous ratings of the intensity of their own amusement and sadness during the first film viewing. For sad films, both block contrast and subject-specific regression approaches resulted in activations in medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, precuneus, lingual gyrus, amygdala, and thalamus. For amusing films, the subject-specific regression analysis demonstrated significant activations not detected by the block contrast in medial, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, temporal lobes, hippocampus, thalamus, and caudate. These results suggest a relationship between emotion-specific temporal dynamics and the sensitivity of different data analytic methods for identifying emotion-related neural responses. These findings shed light on the neural bases of amusement and sadness, and highlight the value of using emotional film stimuli and subject-specific continuous emotion ratings to characterize the dynamic, time-varying components of emotional responses.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.03.018

View details for Web of Science ID 000230701200003

View details for PubMedID 15890534
Individual differences in trait rumination and the neural systems supporting cognitive reappraisal COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE Ray, R. D., Ochsner, K. N., Cooper, J. C., Robertson, E. R., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J. 2005; 5 (2): 156-168
Abstract

Cognitive reappraisal can alter emotional responses by changing one's interpretation of a situation's meaning. Functional neuroimaging has revealed that using cognitive reappraisal to increase or decrease affective responses involves left prefrontal activation and goal-appropriate increases or decreases in amygdala activation (Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002; Ochsner, Ray, et al., 2004). The present study was designed to examine whether patterns of brain activation during reappraisal vary in relation to individual differences in trait rumination, which is the tendency to focus on negative aspects of one's self or negative interpretations of one's life. Individual differences in rumination correlated with increases in amygdala response when participants were increasing negative affect and with greater decreases in prefrontal regions implicated in self-focused thought when participants were decreasing negative affect. Thus, the propensity to ruminate may reflect altered recruitment of mechanisms that potentiate negative affect. These findings clarify relations between rumination and emotion regulation processes and may have important implications for mood and anxiety disorders.

View details for Web of Science ID 000232717900005

View details for PubMedID 16180622
The tie that binds? Coherence among emotion experience, behavior, and physiology EMOTION Mauss, I. B., Levenson, R. W., McCarter, L., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2005; 5 (2): 175-190
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.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.5.2.175

View details for Web of Science ID 000230443800005

View details for PubMedID 15982083
Vagal withdrawal to a sad film predicts subsequent recovery from depression PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Rottenberg, J., Salomon, K., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2005; 42 (3): 277-281
Abstract

Cardiac vagal tone, as indexed by abnormalities in the level and/or reactivity of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), has been related to psychiatric impairment, including risk for depression. Longitudinal studies of depression have focused on RSA levels and have found mixed support for the hypothesis that low RSA levels predict a more pernicious course of depression. The current investigation focuses on the relation between RSA reactivity and the course of depression. We measured depressed persons' RSA reactivity to sadness-, fear-, and amusement-inducing emotion films and reassessed participants' diagnostic status 6 months later. Depressed persons who exhibited a higher degree of vagal withdrawal to the sad film were more likely to recover from depression. Implications for the study of RSA in depression are discussed.

View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2005.00289.x

View details for Web of Science ID 000229666500004

View details for PubMedID 15943681
The cognitive control of emotion TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. 2005; 9 (5): 242-249
Abstract

The capacity to control emotion is important for human adaptation. Questions about the neural bases of emotion regulation have recently taken on new importance, as functional imaging studies in humans have permitted direct investigation of control strategies that draw upon higher cognitive processes difficult to study in nonhumans. Such studies have examined (1) controlling attention to, and (2) cognitively changing the meaning of, emotionally evocative stimuli. These two forms of emotion regulation depend upon interactions between prefrontal and cingulate control systems and cortical and subcortical emotion-generative systems. Taken together, the results suggest a functional architecture for the cognitive control of emotion that dovetails with findings from other human and nonhuman research on emotion.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.010

View details for Web of Science ID 000229466500010

View details for PubMedID 15866151
Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: Personality processes, individual differences, and life span development JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY John, O. P., Gross, J. J. 2004; 72 (6): 1301-1333
Abstract

Individuals regulate their emotions in a wide variety of ways. Are some forms of emotion regulation healthier than others? We focus on two commonly used emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal (changing the way one thinks about a potentially emotion-eliciting event) and suppression (changing the way one responds behaviorally to an emotion-eliciting event). In the first section, we review experimental findings showing that reappraisal has a healthier profile of short-term affective, cognitive, and social consequences than suppression. In the second section, we review individual-difference findings, which show that using reappraisal to regulate emotions is associated with healthier patterns of affect, social functioning, and well-being than is using suppression. In the third section, we consider issues in the development of reappraisal and suppression and provide new evidence for a normative shift toward an increasingly healthy emotion regulation profile during adulthood (i.e., increases in the use of reappraisal and decreases in the use of suppression).

View details for Web of Science ID 000224756300008

View details for PubMedID 15509284
For better or for worse: neural systems supporting the cognitive down- and up-regulation of negative emotion NEUROIMAGE Ochsner, K. N., Ray, R. D., Cooper, J. C., Robertson, E. R., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., Gross, J. J. 2004; 23 (2): 483-499
Abstract

Functional neuroimaging studies examining the neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion have found increased prefrontal and decreased amygdala activation for the reduction or down-regulation of negative emotion. It is unknown, however, (1) whether the same neural systems underlie the enhancement or up-regulation of emotion, and (2) whether altering the nature of the regulatory strategy alters the neural systems mediating the regulation. To address these questions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants up- and down-regulated negative emotion either by focusing internally on the self-relevance of aversive scenes or by focusing externally on alternative meanings for pictured actions and their situational contexts. Results indicated (1a) that both up- and down-regulating negative emotion recruited prefrontal and anterior cingulate regions implicated in cognitive control, (1b) that amygdala activation was modulated up or down in accord with the regulatory goal, and (1c) that up-regulation uniquely recruited regions of left rostromedial PFC implicated in the retrieval of emotion knowledge, whereas down-regulation uniquely recruited regions of right lateral and orbital PFC implicated in behavioral inhibition. Results also indicated that (2) self-focused regulation recruited medial prefrontal regions implicated in internally focused processing, whereas situation-focused regulation recruited lateral prefrontal regions implicated in externally focused processing. These data suggest that both common and distinct neural systems support various forms of reappraisal and that which particular prefrontal systems modulate the amygdala in different ways depends on the regulatory goal and strategy employed.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.06.030

View details for Web of Science ID 000224817100005

View details for PubMedID 15488398
Is there less to social anxiety than meets the eye? Emotion experience, expression, and bodily responding COGNITION & EMOTION Mauss, I. B., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2004; 18 (5): 631-662
View details for DOI 10.1080/02699930341000112

View details for Web of Science ID 000223126400003
Emotion suppression and cardiovascular disease: Is hiding feelings bad for your heart? Emotional expression and health: Advances in theory, assessment, and clinical applications Mauss, I. B., Gross, J. J. edited by Nyklicek, I., Temoshok, L., Vingerhoets, A. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge. 2004: 62–81
Thinking makes it so: A social cognitive neuroscience approach to emotion regulation Handbook of self regulation: Research, theory, and applications Ochsner, K. N., Gross, J. J. edited by Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D. New York, NY: Guilford Press.. 2004: 229–255
Hiding feelings in social contexts: Out of sight is not out of mind The regulation of emotion Butler, E. A., Gross, J. J. edited by Philippot, P., Feldman, R. S. Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum. 2004: 101–126
Sex-steroid derived compounds induce sex-specific effects on autonomic nervous system function in humans BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE Bensafi, M., BROWN, W. M., Tsutsui, T., Mainland, J. D., Johnson, B. N., Bremner, E. A., Young, N., Mauss, I., Ray, B., GROSS, J., Richards, J., Stappen, I., Levenson, R. W., Sobel, N. 2003; 117 (6): 1125-1134
Abstract

The physiological and psychological effects of 2 human sex-steroid derived compounds, 4.16-androstadien-3-one (AND) and l,3,5(10),16-estratetraen-3-ol(EST) were measured in 24 subjects who participated in a within-subjects, double-blind experiment. A dissociation was evident in the physiological effects of AND, in that it increased physiological arousal in women but decreased it in men. EST did not significantly affect physiological arousal in women or men. Neither compound significantly affected mood. AND is an androgen derivative that is the most prevalent androstene in human male sweat, male axillary hair, and on the male axillary skin surface. The authors argue that AND's opposite effects on physiology in men and women further implicate this compound in chemical communication between humans.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0735-7044.117.6.1125

View details for Web of Science ID 000187402300001

View details for PubMedID 14674833
Emotion regulation in romantic relationships: The cognitive consequences of concealing feelings JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS RICHARDS, J. M., Butler, E. A., Gross, J. J. 2003; 20 (5): 599-620
View details for Web of Science ID 000186835300002
Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J., John, O. P. 2003; 85 (2): 348-362
Abstract

Five studies tested two general hypotheses: Individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression, and these individual differences have implications for affect, well-being, and social relationships. Study 1 presents new measures of the habitual use of reappraisal and suppression. Study 2 examines convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 shows that reappraisers experience and express greater positive emotion and lesser negative emotion, whereas suppressors experience and express lesser positive emotion, yet experience greater negative emotion. Study 4 indicates that using reappraisal is associated with better interpersonal functioning, whereas using suppression is associated with worse interpersonal functioning. Study 5 shows that using reappraisal is related positively to well-being, whereas using suppression is related negatively.

View details for DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348

View details for Web of Science ID 000184523900012

View details for PubMedID 12916575
Autonomic recovery and habituation in social anxiety PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Mauss, I. B., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J. 2003; 40 (4): 648-653
Abstract

Growing evidence suggests that, contrary to expectation, high trait socially anxious (HTSA) and low trait socially anxious (LTSA) individuals show comparable autonomic reactivity during stressful speech tasks. To test the hypothesis that autonomic differences between groups might emerge during recovery or habituation, 35 HTSA and LTSA participants gave two impromptu speeches. Measures of anxiety experience as well as cardiovascular, electrodermal, respiratory, and vagal activation were obtained. Despite greater reports of anxiety experience in the HTSA versus the LTSA participants, autonomic measures showed comparable reactivity, habituation, and recovery in the two anxiety groups. These results suggest minimal autonomic differences between HTSA and LTSA individuals, thus supporting theories of social anxiety that emphasize cognitive factors.

View details for Web of Science ID 000183733200017

View details for PubMedID 14570172
When emotion goes wrong: Realizing the promise of affective science CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY-SCIENCE AND PRACTICE Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J. 2003; 10 (2): 227-232
View details for DOI 10.1093/clipsy/bpg012

View details for Web of Science ID 000182986300010
The Social Consequences of Expressive Suppression EMOTION Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. H., Smith, N. C., Erickson, E. A., Gross, J. J. 2003; 3 (1): 48-67
Abstract

At times, people keep their emotions from showing during social interactions. The authors' analysis suggests that such expressive suppression should disrupt communication and increase stress levels. To test this hypothesis, the authors conducted 2 studies in which unacquainted pairs of women discussed an upsetting topic. In Study 1, one member of each pair was randomly assigned to (a) suppress her emotional behavior, (b) respond naturally, or (c) cognitively reappraise in a way that reduced emotional responding. Suppression alone disrupted communication and magnified blood pressure responses in the suppressors' partners. In Study 2, suppression had a negative impact on the regulators' emotional experience and increased blood pressure in both regulators and their partners. Suppression also reduced rapport and inhibited relationship formation.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.48

View details for Web of Science ID 000208224900004

View details for PubMedID 12899316
Vagal rebound during resolution of tearful crying among depressed and nondepressed individuals PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Rottenberg, J., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2003; 40 (1): 1-6
Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is an index of the vagal control of heart rate that is associated with emotion regulatory capacity. To examine RSA in depressed and nondepressed participants in the context of an emotion-regulatory challenge, we presented a sad film to induce crying, a behavior associated with heightened parasympathetic activation. We predicted that nondepressed persons who cried would show elevations in RSA during the onset and the resolution of crying. By contrast, we predicted that depressed individuals who cried would fail to exhibit increased RSA over the course of their crying episodes. As hypothesized, nondepressed participants exhibited RSA increases that accompanied the resolution of tearful crying, consistent with a homeostatic function for crying, whereas depressed subjects who cried did not exhibit increased RSA. Results suggest that the physiological self-regulatory mechanisms invoked by crying are compromised in depression.

View details for Web of Science ID 000180455300001

View details for PubMedID 12751799
Correlates of gay and lesbian couples' relationship satisfaction and relationship dissolution JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY Gottman, J. M., Levenson, R. W., GROSS, J., Frederickson, B. L., McCoy, K., Rosenthal, L., Ruef, A., Yoshimoto, D. 2003; 45 (1): 23-43
Abstract

A sample of committed gay and lesbian cohabiting couples engaged in two conversations after being apart for at least 8 hours: (a) an events of the day conversation and (b) a conflict resolution conversation. Physiological data were collected during the conversations and a videotape record was made. Couples viewed the videotapes and rated their affect during the interaction. The video records were coded with a system that categorized specific affects displayed. Models derived from physiology, from the perception of interaction, and from specific affective behavior were related to relationship satisfaction, and to the prediction of relationship dissolution over a 12-year period. Results supported previous findings that satisfaction and stability in gay and lesbian relationships are related to similar emotional qualities as in heterosexual relationships.

View details for DOI 10.1300/J082v45n01_02

View details for Web of Science ID 000185757500002

View details for PubMedID 14567652
Rethinking feelings: An fMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE Ochsner, K. N., Bunge, S. A., Gross, J. J., Gabrieli, J. D. 2002; 14 (8): 1215-1229
Abstract

The ability to cognitively regulate emotional responses to aversive events is important for mental and physical health. Little is known, however, about neural bases of the cognitive control of emotion. The present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural systems used to reappraise highly negative scenes in unemotional terms. Reappraisal of highly negative scenes reduced subjective experience of negative affect. Neural correlates of reappraisal were increased activation of the lateral and medial prefrontal regions and decreased activation of the amygdala and medial orbito-frontal cortex. These findings support the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex is involved in constructing reappraisal strategies that can modulate activity in multiple emotion-processing systems.

View details for Web of Science ID 000179163500008

View details for PubMedID 12495527
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a predictor of outcome in major depressive disorder JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS Rottenberg, J., Wilhelm, F. H., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2002; 71 (1-3): 265-272
Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a noninvasive measure of parasympathetic tone that has been related to emotion regulatory capacity. While some previous work indicates that clinically depressed persons exhibit lower levels of RSA than do normal controls, there is nevertheless considerable between-subject variation in RSA among depressed persons. The current study evaluated the significance of variation in RSA among depressed persons by examining whether levels of RSA predicted concurrent symptomatology and the course of depressive illness.The RSA levels of 55 diagnosed depressed individuals were assessed during a paced breathing procedure at Time 1. Six months later (Time 2), participants were interviewed again to determine whether or not each had fully recovered from depression. Multinomial regression analyses were conducted to examine whether RSA predicted Time 2 clinical status.Although RSA levels were not related to overall depression severity, they were associated with specific symptoms of depression: RSA was positively associated with the report of sadness and negatively associated with the report of suicidality. More strikingly, however, higher levels of RSA at Time 1 predicted non-recovery from depression at Time 2, even when statistically controlling for initial depression severity, age and medication use.Treatment and medication use were not controlled during the follow-up period and a group of nonpsychiatric controls was not included in this study.A relatively high level of RSA among depressed individuals predicts a more pernicious course of illness than do lower RSA levels.

View details for Web of Science ID 000177824700033

View details for PubMedID 12167527
Sadness and Amusement Reactivity Differentially Predict Concurrent and Prospective Functioning in Major Depressive Disorder EMOTION Rottenberg, J., Kasch, K. L., Gross, J. J., Gotlib, I. H. 2002; 2 (2): 135-146
Abstract

Depressed individuals often fail to react to emotionally significant stimuli. The significance of this pattern of emotional dysregulation in depression is poorly understood. In the present study, depressed and nondepressed participants viewed standardized neutral, sad, fear, and amusing films; and experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses to each film were assessed. Compared with nondepressed controls, depressed participants reported sadness and amusement in a flattened, context-insensitive manner. Those depressed participants who reported the least reactivity to the sad film exhibited the greatest concurrent impairment. Prospectively, the depressed participant who exhibited the least behavioral and heart rate reactivity to the amusing film were the least likely to recover from depression. Loss of the context-appropriate modulation of emotion in depression may reflect a core feature of emotion dysregulation in this disorder.

View details for DOI 10.1037//1528-3542.2.2.135

View details for Web of Science ID 000208224500004

View details for PubMedID 12899187
Crying threshold and intensity in major depressive disorder JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Rottenberg, J., Gross, J. J., Wilhelm, F. H., Gotlib, I. H. 2002; 111 (2): 302-312
Abstract

Clinical lore suggests that depression is associated with frequent and intense crying. To test these postulations empirically, a standardized cry-evoking stimulus was presented to depressed and nondepressed participants, and their likelihood of crying and the magnitude of crying-related changes in their emotion experience, behavior, and autonomic physiology were compared. Unexpectedly, crying was no more likely in depressed than in nondepressed participants. Within the nondepressed group, participants who cried exhibited increases in the report and display of sadness and had greater cardiac and electrodermal activation than did participants who did not cry. There was less evidence of this crying-related emotional activation within the depressed group. The lack of emotional activation among clinically depressed participants who cried provides a tantalizing clue concerning how emotions are dysregulated in this disorder.

View details for DOI 10.1037//0021-843X.111.2.302

View details for Web of Science ID 000175078600009

View details for PubMedID 12003451
Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Gross, J. J. 2002; 39 (3): 281-291
Abstract

One of life's great challenges is successfully regulating emotions. Do some emotion regulation strategies have more to recommend them than others? According to Gross's (1998, Review of General Psychology, 2, 271-299) process model of emotion regulation, strategies that act early in the emotion-generative process should have a different profile of consequences than strategies that act later on. This review focuses on two commonly used strategies for down-regulating emotion. The first, reappraisal, comes early in the emotion-generative process. It consists of changing the way a situation is construed so as to decrease its emotional impact. The second, suppression, comes later in the emotion-generative process. It consists of inhibiting the outward signs of inner feelings. Experimental and individual-difference studies find reappraisal is often more effective than suppression. Reappraisal decreases emotion experience and behavioral expression, and has no impact on memory. By contrast, suppression decreases behavioral expression, but fails to decrease emotion experience, and actually impairs memory. Suppression also increases physiological responding for suppressors and their social partners. This review concludes with a consideration of five important directions for future research on emotion regulation processes.

View details for DOI 10.1017/S0048577201393198

View details for Web of Science ID 000175419200002

View details for PubMedID 12212647
Implicit Anxiety Measure Predicts Cardiovascular Reactivity to an Evaluated Speaking Task EMOTION Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. H., Neubauer, D. H., Mauss, I. B., Gross, J. J. 2002; 2 (1): 3-11
Abstract

Explicit personality tests assess introspectively accessible self-descriptions. By contrast, implicit personality tests assess introspectively inaccessible processes that operate outside of awareness. Despite their inaccessibility, implicit processes are presumed to influence a variety of current responses. This study tested the hypothesis that an implicit anxiety test should predict cardiovascular reactivity during a speech stressor task. In all, 97 participants completed a measure of attention allocation toward threat (implicit test) and an anxiety questionnaire (explicit test) 1 week before giving an evaluated speech. Whereas the explicit test showed modest relations within only 1 measure of cardiovascular reactivity, the implicit test predicted heart rate and blood pressure reactivity during preparation and delivery of the speech. These findings encourage the broader use of implicit measures to assess cardiovascular responses to threat.

View details for DOI 10.1037/1528-3542.2.1.3

View details for Web of Science ID 000208224400001

View details for PubMedID 12899363
Wise emotion regulation The wisdom in feeling: Psychological processes in emotional intelligence Gross, J. J., John edited by Barret, L. F., Salovey, P. New York, NY: Guilford. 2002: 297–318
Social anxiety and response to touch: incongruence between self-evaluative and physiological reactions 40th Annual Meeting of the Society-for-Psychophysiological-Research Wilhelm, F. H., Kochar, A. S., Roth, W. T., Gross, J. J. ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. 2001: 181–202
Abstract

Touch is an important form of social interaction, and one that can have powerful emotional consequences. Appropriate touch can be calming, while inappropriate touch can be anxiety provoking. To examine the impact of social touching, this study compared socially high-anxious (N=48) and low-anxious (N=47) women's attitudes concerning social touch, as well as their affective and physiological responses to a wrist touch by a male experimenter. Compared to low-anxious participants, high-anxious participants reported greater anxiety to a variety of social situations involving touch. Consistent with these reports, socially anxious participants reacted to the experimenter's touch with markedly greater increases in self-reported anxiety, self-consciousness, and embarrassment. Physiologically, low-anxious and high-anxious participants showed a distinct pattern of sympathetic-parasympathetic coactivation, as reflected by decreased heart rate and tidal volume, and increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, skin conductance, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, stroke volume, and respiratory rate. Interestingly, physiological responses were comparable in low and high-anxious groups. These findings indicate that social anxiety is accompanied by heightened aversion towards social situations that involve touch, but this enhanced aversion and negative-emotion report is not reflected in differential physiological responding.

View details for Web of Science ID 000172496600001

View details for PubMedID 11698114
Emotion regulation in adulthood: Timing is everything CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Gross, J. J. 2001; 10 (6): 214-219
View details for Web of Science ID 000172394200007
James J. Gross - Award for distinguished scientific early career contributions to psychology AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST Anonymous 2001; 56 (11): 911-913
View details for DOI 10.1037//0003-066X.56.11.911

View details for Web of Science ID 000173083800013

View details for PubMedID 11785163
Knowing what you're feeling and knowing what to do about it: Mapping the relation between emotion differentiation and emotion regulation Meeting of the Society-of-Experimental-Social-Psychology Barrett, L. F., GROSS, J., CHRISTENSEN, T. C., Benvenuto, M. PSYCHOLOGY PRESS. 2001: 713–24
View details for Web of Science ID 000171618800001
An fMRI study of personality influences on brain reactivity to emotional stimuli BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE Canli, T., Zhao, Z., Desmond, J. E., Kang, E. J., GROSS, J., Gabrieli, J. D. 2001; 115 (1): 33-42
Abstract

Functional imaging studies have examined which brain regions respond to emotional stimuli, but they have not determined how stable personality traits moderate such brain activation. Two personality traits, extraversion and neuroticism, are strongly associated with emotional experience and may thus moderate brain reactivity to emotional stimuli. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly test whether individual differences in brain reactivity to emotional stimuli are correlated with extraversion and neuroticism in healthy women. Extraversion was correlated with brain reactivity to positive stimuli in localized brain regions, and neuroticism was correlated with brain reactivity to negative stimuli in localized brain regions. This study provides direct evidence that personality is associated with brain reactivity to emotional stimuli and identifies both common and distinct brain regions where such modulation takes place.

View details for DOI 10.1037//0735-7044.115.1.33

View details for Web of Science ID 000170911300003

View details for PubMedID 11256451
Emotional intelligence: A process model of emotion representation and regulation. Emotions: Current issues and future directions Barrett, L. F., Gross, J. J. edited by Mayne, T. J., Bonanno, G. A. New York, NY: Guilford. 2001: 286–310
Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one's cool JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RICHARDS, J. M., Gross, J. J. 2000; 79 (3): 410-424
Abstract

An emerging literature has begun to document the affective consequences of emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about whether emotion regulation also has cognitive consequences. A process model of emotion suggests that expressive suppression should reduce memory for emotional events but that reappraisal should not. Three studies tested this hypothesis. Study 1 experimentally manipulated expressive suppression during film viewing, showing that suppression led to poorer memory for the details of the film. Study 2 manipulated expressive suppression and reappraisal during slide viewing. Only suppression led to poorer slide memory. Study 3 examined individual differences in typical expressive suppression and reappraisal and found that suppression was associated with poorer self-reported and objective memory but that reappraisal was not. Together, these studies suggest that the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool may vary according to how this is done.

View details for DOI 10.1037//0022-3514.79.3.410

View details for Web of Science ID 000089022300008

View details for PubMedID 10981843
The dissociation of emotion expression from emotion experience: A personality perspective PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Gross, J. J., John, O. P., RICHARDS, J. M. 2000; 26 (6): 712-726
View details for Web of Science ID 000087015200006
The Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire Commissioned reviews on 300 psychological tests Gross, J. J. edited by Maltby, J., Lewis, C. A., Hills, A. P. Lampeter, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press.. 2000: 465–467
Functional accounts of emotions COGNITION & EMOTION Keltner, D., Gross, J. J. 1999; 13 (5): 467-480
View details for Web of Science ID 000082383300002
Emotion regulation: Past, present, future COGNITION & EMOTION Gross, J. J. 1999; 13 (5): 551-573
View details for Web of Science ID 000082383300006
Composure at any cost? The cognitive consequences of emotion suppression PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN RICHARDS, J. M., Gross, J. J. 1999; 25 (8): 1033-1044
View details for Web of Science ID 000081519500010
Emotion and emotion regulation Handbook of personality: Theory and research Gross, J. J. edited by Pervin, L. A., John, O. P. New York, NY: Guilford. 1999; 2nd: 525–552
Emotion suppression Encyclopedia of human emotions Miles, H. J., Gross, J. J. edited by Levinson, D., Ponzetti, J. J., Jorgensen, P. F. New York, NY: Macmillan. 1999: 237–241
Mood matters: Negative mood induction activates dysfunctional attitudes in women vulnerable to depression COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH MIRANDA, J., Gross, J. J., Persons, J. B., Hahn, J. 1998; 22 (4): 363-376
View details for Web of Science ID 000075747000005
Relations between affect and personality: Support for the affect-level and affective-reactivity views 7th Annual Meeting of the American-Psychological-Society Gross, J. J., Sutton, S. K., Ketelaar, T. SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC. 1998: 279–88
View details for Web of Science ID 000072227800005
Mapping the domain of expressivity: Multimethod evidence for a hierarchical model JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J., John, O. P. 1998; 74 (1): 170-191
Abstract

Increased interest in emotional expressivity has led to a proliferation of conceptions and measures. It is unclear, however, whether they all refer to the same construct and whether the domain of emotional expressivity is best conceptualized as unidimensional or multifaceted. Study 1 examined 6 common expressivity questionnaires, yielding 5 factors: Expressive Confidence, Positive Expressivity, Negative Expressivity, Impulse Intensity, and Masking. To develop a nomological network for these factors, the factors were related to broader personality taxonomies and their differential relations to sex and ethnicity were tested. Study 2 provided further evidence of discriminant validity in relation to (a) typical emotion expression in peer relationships, (b) ability to pose emotions in the laboratory, (c) likability, and (d) regulation of emotion and mood. These findings support a hierarchical model of individual differences in emotional expressivity.

View details for Web of Science ID 000071543400014

View details for PubMedID 9457781
The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review Review of General Psychology Gross, J. J. 1998; 2: 271-299
View details for DOI 10.1037//1089-2680.2.3.271
The social context of emotional experience Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics Carstensen, L. L., Gross, J. J., Fung, H. edited by Schaie, K. W., Lawton, M. P. New York, NY: Springer. 1998: 325–352
Sharpening the focus: Emotion regulation, arousal, and social competence PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY Gross, J. J. 1998; 9 (4): 287-290
View details for Web of Science ID 000079554600008
Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J. 1998; 74 (1): 224-237
Abstract

Using a process model of emotion, a distinction between antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation is proposed. To test this distinction, 120 participants were shown a disgusting film while their experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses were recorded. Participants were told to either (a) think about the film in such a way that they would feel nothing (reappraisal, a form of antecedent-focused emotion regulation), (b) behave in such a way that someone watching them would not know they were feeling anything (suppression, a form of response-focused emotion regulation), or (c) watch the film (a control condition). Compared with the control condition, both reappraisal and suppression were effective in reducing emotion-expressive behavior. However, reappraisal decreased disgust experience, whereas suppression increased sympathetic activation. These results suggest that these 2 emotion regulatory processes may have different adaptive consequences.

View details for Web of Science ID 000071543400017

View details for PubMedID 9457784
Emotion and aging: Experience, expression, and control PSYCHOLOGY AND AGING Gross, J. J., Carstensen, L. L., Pasupathi, M., Tsai, J., Skorpen, C. G., Hsu, A. Y. 1997; 12 (4): 590-599
Abstract

Age differences in emotional experience, expression, and control were investigated in 4 studies. A community sample of 127 African Americans and European Americans (ages 19-96 years) was used in Study 1; a community sample of 82 Chinese Americans and European Americans (ages 20-85 years) was used in Study 2; a community sample of 49 Norwegians drawn from 2 age groups (ages 20-35 years and 70+ years) was used in Study 3; and a sample of 1,080 American nuns (ages 24-101 years) was used in Study 4. Across studies, a consistent pattern of age differences emerged. Compared with younger participants, older participants reported fewer negative emotional experiences and greater emotional control. Findings regarding emotional expressivity were less consistent, but when there were age differences, older participants reported lesser expressivity. Results are interpreted in terms of increasingly competent emotion regulation across the life span.

View details for Web of Science ID A1997YK91800005

View details for PubMedID 9416628
Cognitive vulnerability, depression, and the mood-state dependent hypothesis: Is out of sight out of mind? COGNITION & EMOTION MIRANDA, J. 1997; 11 (5-6): 585-605
View details for Web of Science ID A1997YG51300006
Hiding feelings: The acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J., Levenson, R. W. 1997; 106 (1): 95-103
Abstract

Emotion regulation plays a central role in mental health and illness, but little is known about even the most basic forms of emotion regulation. To examine the acute effects of inhibiting negative and positive emotion, we asked 180 female participants to watch sad, neutral, and amusing films under 1 of 2 conditions. Suppression participants (N = 90) inhibited their expressive behavior while watching the films; no suppression participants (N = 90) simply watched the films. Suppression diminished expressive behavior in all 3 films and decreased amusement self-reports in sad and amusing films. Physiologically, suppression had no effect in the neutral film, but clear effects in both negative and positive emotional films, including increased sympathetic activation of the cardiovascular system. On the basis of these findings, we suggest several ways emotional inhibition may influence psychological functioning.

View details for Web of Science ID A1997WF06400009

View details for PubMedID 9103721
Revealing feelings: Facets of emotional expressivity in self-reports, peer ratings, and behavior JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J., John, O. P. 1997; 72 (2): 435-448
Abstract

Drawing on an explicit model of emotion, we propose a multifaceted approach to emotional expressivity, defined as the behavioral (e.g., facial, postural) changes associated with emotion. Study 1 shows that self-reported expressivity has 3 facets (Impulse Strength, Negative Expressivity, Positive Expressivity). Study 2 shows that the same 3 facets emerge in peer ratings and that there are robust relations between self- and peer-rated expressivity. In Study 3, emotion-expressive behavior was videotaped and related to expressivity self-reports obtained several months earlier. As expected, Negative Expressivity predicted behavioral expressions of sadness (but not amusement), whereas Positive Expressivity predicted amusement (but not sadness). These relations remained even when subjective emotional experience and physiological response were controlled. These studies demonstrate the importance of a multifaceted approach to emotional expressivity and have implications for the understanding of personality and emotion.

View details for Web of Science ID A1997WH68100015

View details for PubMedID 9107009
Psychodynamic therapists' reservations about cognitive-behavioral therapy : implications for training and practice. The Journal of psychotherapy practice and research Persons, J. B., Gross, J. J., Etkin, M. S., Madan, S. K. 1996; 5 (3): 202-212
Abstract

This article offers suggestions for psychodynamic therapists who encounter obstacles while learning cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or working in settings where CBT is used. The authors discuss three types of questions commonly raised by psychodynamic therapists about CBT. These concern 1) the therapeutic relationship, 2) the focus of therapeutic interventions, and 3) the depth of change. To help psychodynamic therapists overcome obstacles to learning CBT, the authors focus on similarities between psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral models in these three areas. They also examine differences between the models, including differences dependent on value judgments, and offer suggestions for making productive use of differences between the models in the training process.

View details for PubMedID 22700289
FACETS OF EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIVITY - 3 SELF-REPORT FACTORS AND THEIR CORRELATES PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Gross, J. J., John, O. P. 1995; 19 (4): 555-568
View details for Web of Science ID A1995RV42500016
EMOTION REGULATION AND MENTAL-HEALTH CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY-SCIENCE AND PRACTICE Gross, J. J., Munoz, R. F. 1995; 2 (2): 151-164
View details for Web of Science ID A1995QZ95000003
EMOTION ELICITATION USING FILMS COGNITION & EMOTION Gross, J. J., Levenson, R. W. 1995; 9 (1): 87-108
View details for Web of Science ID A1995QG85700006
THE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF CRYING PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY Gross, J. J., Fredrickson, B. L., Levenson, R. W. 1994; 31 (5): 460-468
Abstract

Two conflicting views have emerged as to why people cry when they are sad. One suggests that crying serves homeostasis by facilitating recovery; the other suggests that crying produces an aversive high-arousal state that motivates behavior aimed at ending the tears. To test hypotheses drawn from these views, we showed a short film known to elicit sadness to 150 women. During this film, 33 subjects spontaneously cried and 117 did not. Subjects who cried exhibited more expressive behavior and reported feeling more sadness and pain than did subjects who did not cry. Crying also was associated with increases in somatic and autonomic nervous system activity. The increases in autonomic activity could not be accounted for solely by the increases in somatic activity. Crying is thus associated with an aversive state, including negative emotion and a complex mixture of sympathetic, parasympathetic, and somatic activation, and we speculate about the functional implications of these findings.

View details for Web of Science ID A1994PD74700005

View details for PubMedID 7972600
EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSION - PHYSIOLOGY, SELF-REPORT, AND EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Gross, J. J., Levenson, R. W. 1993; 64 (6): 970-986
Abstract

This study examined the effects of emotional suppression, a form of emotion regulation defined as the conscious inhibition of emotional expressive behavior while emotionally aroused. Ss (43 men and 42 women) watched a short disgust-eliciting film while their behavioral, physiological, and subjective responses were recorded. Ss were told to watch the film (no suppression condition) or to watch the film while behaving "in such a way that a person watching you would not know you were feeling anything" (suppression condition). Suppression reduced expressive behavior and produced a mixed physiological state characterized by decreased somatic activity and decreased heart rate, along with increased blinking and indications of increased sympathetic nervous system activity (in other cardiovascular measures and in electrodermal responding). Suppression had no impact on the subjective experience of emotion. There were no sex differences in the effects of suppression.

View details for Web of Science ID A1993LE94100008

View details for PubMedID 8326473
PROFOUND PACEMAKER SYNDROME IN HYPERTROPHIC CARDIOMYOPATHY AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY Gross, J. N., Keltz, T. N., Cooper, J. A., Breitbart, S., Furman, S. 1992; 70 (18): 1507-1511
View details for Web of Science ID A1992KA27200030

View details for PubMedID 1442632
EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION IN CANCER ONSET AND PROGRESSION SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE GROSS, J. 1989; 28 (12): 1239-1248
Abstract

Despite the intensive biomedical research in oncology since World War II, recent studies show a steady increase in age-adjusted mortality for all kinds of cancer. This findings gives impetus to the efforts of researchers who have adopted the biopsychosocial model. Systematic research using such a model has shown several psychosocial factors to be associated with cancer onset and progression, and Temoshok has recently suggested a theoretical model which unifies these findings. In this paper, I consider the evidence that one of these psychosocial factors, emotional expression, may be directly involved in cancer onset and progression. I review 18 relevant studies, discuss how one might operationalize the term 'emotional expression', and make 12 suggestions for future research.

View details for Web of Science ID A1989U563800004

View details for PubMedID 2660280

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