Objective: The purpose of this dissertation was to reproduce Thayer and Lane’s (2000) neurovisceral model by examining both tonic and phasic heart rate variability (HRV) and emotion regulation (ER), and explore the effects of brief evidence-based intervention techniques in a sample of adults with clinically elevated levels of anxiety. Methods: This was a comprehensive multi-methodological study of 34 adults (ages 19 to 63 years) with clinically elevated levels of anxiety. Study 1 examined subjective and physiological effects of implementing ER strategies in response to a well-validated emotion elicitation paradigm consisting of viewing emotion-eliciting aversive images and sentences. Study 2 employed a within-subject RCT design and compared the impact of cognitive restructuring (CR), a top-down ER technique, with open monitoring mindfulness (OM), a bottom-up ER technique. Effects of intervention on self-regulation were assessed at a physiological (i.e. HRV), behavioral (i.e. ER and executive function (EF) computerized task) and subjective (i.e. self-report questionnaires) level. Results: Study 1 revealed that tonic HRV significantly predicted perceived ER success for both top-down and bottom-up generated emotions, whereas phasic HRV only predicted perceived ER success under conditions of bottom-up emotion generation. Variability emerged in our findings depending on the unique ER strategy used. Study 2 indicated a significant time by intervention effect on phasic HRV on the ER task, where HRV decreased with CR and increased with OM. There was a main effect of age independent of intervention on the EF task, such that increased age was related to increased phasic reactivity. On the ER task, CR led to greater perceived success in cognitive reappraisal. On the EF task, CR became faster, whereas OM became slower but more accurate. Significant intervention effects were also found on self-reported anxiety and aspects of mindfulness, with greatest reductions in anxiety found in OM compared to CR. Conclusions: In keeping with the neurovisceral integration model, HRV was reduced in individuals’ with clinically elevated levels of anxiety. Moreover, our findings illustrate that the method of emotion generation and regulation matters and has a significant impact on the degree to which persons with clinical levels of anxiety are able to successfully self-regulate. Finally, our results demonstrate the utility of multi-modal assessment of cognitive and emotional dysregulation in anxiety disorders, as well as the different pathways through which different interventions can impact HRV and ameliorate symptoms of anxiety. / Graduate

abstract: Seizure disorders are a widespread health concern (England, Liverman, Schultz, & Strawbridge, 2012). Past research shows that a good quality marital relationship can have numerous health benefits (Homish & Leonard, 2008); however, there is little evidence to show that individuals suffering from seizures are receiving any of these marital benefits. Instead, most research suggests that individuals with a seizure disorder are significantly less likely to marry, have more marital conflict, and report the seizures as a main reason for divorce (Chen, et al., 2013). The current study included 67 individuals who self-reported that they suffered from a seizure disorder. These individuals took part in an online survey that included questions about their experience with seizures, their strategies for managing emotions, and their relationship (marital) status. It was hypothesized that individuals who were married would report fewer emotion regulation difficulties and be less impacted by their seizures than those who were unmarried. The results of this study showed that: 1) married and unmarried individuals did not differ in reported emotion regulation difficulties; 2) contrary to predictions, married individuals were more impacted by their seizures than unmarried individuals; 3) greater emotion regulation difficulties (specifically difficulty accepting emotions and difficulty carrying out goal-directed behavior when upset) were associated with a greater perceived impact of seizures on one’s life; and 4) marriage moderated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and impact of seizures, such that difficulty accepting emotions predicted a greater impact of seizures on one’s life for married but not unmarried individuals. This was not the case for another facet of emotion regulation measured, namely difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior when upset. An important conclusion from this study is that a failure to accept emotions may be more likely to contribute to seizure impact among married than unmarried individuals. Promoting acceptance of emotions, perhaps in the context of one’s marital relationship as well as in general, may be beneficial for individuals suffering from a seizure disorder. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2015

abstract: Background: When studying how humans regulate their affect, it is important to recognize that affect regulation does not occur in a vacuum. As humans are an inherently social species, affect plays a crucial evolutionary role in social behavior, and social behavior likewise assumes an important role in affect and affect regulation. Emotion researchers are increasingly interested the specific ways people help to regulate and dysregulate one another’s affect, though experimental examinations of the extant models and theory are relatively few. This thesis presents a broad theoretical framework for social affect regulation between close others, considering the role of attachment theory and its developmental foundations for social affect regulation in adulthood. Affectionate and responsive touch is considered a major mechanism of regulatory benefit between people, both developmentally and in adulthood, and is the focus of the present investigation. Method: A total sample of 231 heterosexual married couples were recruited from the community. Participants were assigned to engage in affectionate touch or sit quietly, and/or engage in positive conversation prior to a stress task. Physiological data was collected continuously across the experiment. Hypotheses: Phasic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was used to index the degree of regulatory engagement during the stressor for those who did and did not touch. It was hypothesized that touch would reduce stress appraisal and thus the need for regulatory engagement. This effect was predicted to be greater for those more anxiously attached while increasing the need for regulatory engagement in those more avoidantly attached. Secondarily, partner effects of attachment on sympathetic activation via pre-ejection period (PEP) change were tested. It was predicted that both attachment dimensions would predict a decrease in partner PEP change in the touch condition, with avoidant attachment having the strongest effect. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to account for nonindependence in dyadic observations. The first set of hypotheses were not supported, while the second set were partially supported. Wives’ avoidance significantly predicted husbands’ PEP change, but in the positive direction. This effect also significantly increased in the touch condition. Theoretical considerations and limitations are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2017

abstract: Individuals differ in the extent to which they feel connected to their future selves, which predicts time preference (i.e., preference for immediate versus delayed utility), financial decision-making, delinquency, and academic performance. Future self-connectedness may also predict how individuals compare themselves with their past selves, future selves, and other people. Greater connectedness may lead to more self-affirming types of temporal self-comparison, less self-deflating types of temporal self-comparison, and less social comparison. Two studies examined the relation between future self-connectedness and comparison processes, as well as effects on emotion, psychological adjustment, and motivation. In the first study, as expected, future self-connectedness positively predicted self-affirming temporal self-comparison and negatively predicted self-deflating temporal self-comparison and social comparison. In addition, future self-connectedness had beneficial direct and indirect effects on adjustment, emotion regulation, and motivation. Unlike previous research, this study examined all three components of future self-connectedness, as opposed to only one. Exploratory analyses examined the items comprising the similarity-connectedness component and found that the relation of these items to the other variables in the model did not differ, though some of the relations in the model were moderated by college generation status. The second study tested whether increasing future self-connectedness would have similar effects on comparison, adjustment, emotion, and motivation. It implemented a pilot future self-connectedness manipulation, an established identity-stability manipulation, and a control condition. The pilot manipulation and identity-stability manipulation failed to affect future self-connectedness relative to control, and did not affect comparison, motivation, adjustment, or emotion. Future research should ascertain whether there is a causal link between connectedness and social comparison or temporal self-comparison processes. Overall, this research links future self-connectedness to social comparison and temporal self-comparison processes, as well as well-being, emotion, and motivation, which demonstrates the importance of connectedness in new, important areas. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2018

Distraction and cognitive reappraisal are two widely used types of emotional regulation strategies that are thought to be reliable when down-regulating our emotions to negative or unpleasant stimuli. Gross‘s process model of emotion generation (Gross, 1998) holds that they differ in the time they intervene in the emotiongenerative process and also how they impact emotional responses when they are used to regulate negative emotions. Distraction which involves attentional deployment is expected to operate earlier than reappraisal that entails meaning evaluation and reevaluation. Cognitive reappraisal encompasses various strategies that are used to regulate our emotions through reinterpretation. Self-focused and situation-focused reappraisal are two of them. The former is considered more efficient and thus would lead to a greater attenuation of the LPPthan the latter. To test this prediction, electrocortical responses to angry faces when using these strategies were measured using the late positive potential (LPP). Twenty four healthy participants were recruited for the study and were cued to down-regulate their emotions using these strategies while angry and neutral facial stimuli were seen on a computer screen. Contrary to prediction, distraction did not modulate the LPP earlier than reappraisal. However, supporting our hypothesis self-focused strategies largely modulated the LPP than situation-focused strategy. The pattern of result suggests that reappraisal might have an influence on the early neural processes of emotion generation and that the subcategories of cognitive reappraisal have a differential effect on emotional regulation.

Cognitive reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that has been shown effective in down-regulating negative emotions in both psychological and electrophysiological measures. Although there are many studies on cognitive reappraisal, only recently have there been studies differentiating between various ways of employing the strategy. This event-related potential (ERP) study sets out to compare the efficiency and temporal dynamics of three cognitive reappraisal techniques – situation-focused reappraisal, social distancing, and temporal distancing – by measuring their effects on emotional responses to aversive pictures, as indexed by the affective ERP component the late positive potential (LPP). EEG data was recorded from 17 participants. The results revealed no significant differences between emotion regulation strategies and baseline for the total ERP epoch (3,000 ms). When differentiating between early (400-800 ms), mid (800-1,500 ms), and late (1,500-3,000) periods of the epoch, significance was found in some conditions, but since no significant overall LPP activity was found, these numbers are difficult to interpret.

Cette recherche ancrée dans la réalité subjective de sujets tout venant, est une exploration des réactions émotionnelles en situation d’incertitude, dans le contexte du phénomène d’intolérance à l’incertitude. Deux contributions qui seront complémentaires l’une de l’autre, vont être présentées afin d’en proposer une modélisation. La première, quantitative, selon l’éclairage apporté par les modèles cognitifs de l’émotion, les modèles multiniveaux et dimensionnels et à l’aide de questionnaires traités par des analyses statistiques, a mis en évidence le rôle de l’attachement, de la régulation émotionnelle et de l’intensité affective dans le mode de fonctionnement émotionnel des sujets intolérants à l’incertitude.La seconde contribution, qualitative, à partir d’entretiens semi-directifs, dans une approche fonctionnelle et relationnelle des émotions, dans une première analyse sémio-pragmatique nous a amenée à proposer une modélisation dans laquelle nous observons deux voies : l’une qui semble plus couteuse pour le sujet intolérant à l’incertitude avec des manifestations somatiques, des difficultés à prendre des décisions, l’autre plus courte, permettant une maîtrise de la situation, par un traitement cognitif dans une recherche active de solution, ou par une acceptation des évènements, dans une certaine mise à distance. Une seconde analyse des entretiens à l’aide du logiciel Tropes, a permis de montrer les différences de modes d’adaptations en situation d’incertitude, entre les sujets intolérants vs tolérants et notamment le rôle du stress. Nous avons pu montrer que le stress semble occuper une place d’actant dans la problématique du sujet intolérant. / This research, anchored in the subjective reality of a random sample of individuals, is an exploration of emotional reactions in situations of uncertainty, in the context of the phenomenon of intolerance to uncertainty. Two contributions which will be complementary to each other, will be presented in order to propose a model. The first, quantitative, was founded on multi-level and dimensional cognitive models of emotion, and used data from questionnaires. The statistical analyses of the results highlighted the role of attachment, emotional regulation and emotional intensity in the emotional functioning of subjects intolerant of uncertainty.The second qualitative contribution was based on semi-directive interviews, in a functional and relational approach to emotions. A first semio-pragmatic analysis led us to propose a model in which we observe two paths: one that seems more emotionally costly for those intolerant to uncertainty, leading to physical symptoms and difficulties to make decisions, the other shorter, allowing more control over the situation, through cognitive procesing in an active search for solutions, or by the acceptance of events, which creates a distancing of the individual from the situation. A second analysis of the interviews using the Tropes software package, showed the differences in subjects’ adjustement styles in situations of uncertainty, between intolerant vs tolerant subjects and notably the role of stress. We were able to show that stress seems to occupy a place of actant in the problematic of the intolerant subject.

One thing that may affect our decision making is emotions, and emotions are something we can regulate, this is referred to as emotion regulation. the use of emotion regulation strategies influence our decision making how this process out at the neural level The findings within this will suggest that the emotion regulation strategy reappraisal, compared to suppression, our decision making At the neural level, findings within this will indicate that neural changes may occur when individuals regulate their emotions in relation to making decisions. For instance, decreased activity within the striatum was associated with making less risky decisions when using the emotion regulation strategy reappraisal. On the other hand, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex may be important in mediating the neural systems of emotional states and working memory in order to enable decision making. This will also cover some prominent theories of emotion and decision making. Emotion regulation, as well as strategies for emotion regulation, will be explained.

Resilience is a dynamic process that reflect individual ability to successfully recover and positively adapt to severe circumstances. In this essay, attachment, social support, self- regulation and affective processing, taken from the "shortlist of resilience" provided by Masten, are further analyzed and connected to findings within neuroscience. The result suggest that brain areas originated from the prefrontal cortex, such as orbitofrontal and dorsolateral cortex, are two major neural correlates to attachment and stress- and self- regulation. The amygdala is also an area of interest, because of its’ connection to emotions and affective memories. Research on affective style suggest that the functions associated with the prefrontal cortex are dampening the effect of the amygdala, which later supports resilience and recovery. The area of resilience is suffering from a lacking general definition, measurement and operationalization, which is argued to be the major challenge of this research area. Prominent researchers prospect that resilience research will continue to flourish within the area of neuroscience, and that further discoveries will be made concerning how this cognitive ability is related to structural and functional differences in the brain.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar se o treino de meditação da atenção focada promoveria melhoras em variáveis emocionais e cognitivas. Foram realizadas duas intervenções de diferentes durações, as quais foram avaliadas antes e depois através de um paradigma experimental que permitiu analisar a interferência emocional e o controle cognitivo, assim como de medidas de autorrelato avaliando variáveis de ansiedade, afeto, dificuldades de regulação emocional e atenção concentrada. A primeira intervenção compreendeu um ensaio randomizado de seis semanas, com encontros semanais e com dois grupos controle - relaxamento progressivo e lista de espera. A segunda compreendeu um ensaio de cinco dias consecutivos, com apenas um grupo controle de lista de espera. Os resultados de ambas intervenções indicaram que a meditação da atenção focada pode ajudar na modulação da interferência emocional, no controle cognitivo, assim como na melhora de aspectos emocionais, tal como redução de ansiedade e afeto negativo, e melhora na atenção concentrada. Além disso, estes resultados foram superiores àqueles observados nos grupos controle. Ressalta-se que apesar de complementares, os achados da intervenção mais curta foram menos robustos, indicando que um treino curto já pode produzir mudanças, mas que estas ganham maior magnitude à medida que o tempo de prática aumenta. Discute-se o papel da interrelação entre as variáveis investigadas para a regulação emocional, sugerindo-se que a meditação pode ser caracterizada como um tipo particular de estratégia regulatória. / The present work aimed to evaluate whether a focused attention meditation training would promote enhancements in emotional and cognitive variables. Two interventions with distinct durations were carried out, which were evaluated before and afterwards through an experimental paradigm that allowed the analysis of emotion intereference and cognitive control, as well self-report measures assessing variables such as anxiety, affect, difficulties in emotion regulation, and concentrated attention. The first intervention comprised of a six-week randomized trial, with weekly meetings and two control groups - progressive relaxation and wait list control. The second comprised a five-consecutive-day randomized trial, with only a wait list control group. Results from both interventions indicated that focused attention meditation can help modulating emotion interference, enhance cognitive control, as well as improve emotional aspects, such as reducing anxiety, negative affect, and increasing concentrated attention. In addition, these findings were superior to those observed in the control groups. We highlight that despite being complementary, the results from the short intervention were less robust, indicating that a short-term training can already promote some changes, but that the extent of their magnitude seems to be related to the amount of practice. We discuss the role of the interrelationship between the investigated variables for emotion regulation, suggesting that meditation can be considered a particular type of regulatory strategy.