Stay calm! Regulating emotional responses by implementation intentions: assessing the impact on physiological and subjective arousal

Azbel-Jackson, L., Butler, L. T., Ellis, J. A. and Van Reekum, C. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1516-1101 (2016) Stay calm! Regulating emotional responses by implementation intentions: assessing the impact on physiological and subjective arousal. Cognition & Emotion, 30 (6). pp. 1107-1121. ISSN 0269-9931 doi: 10.1080/02699931.2015.1049515

Abstract/Summary

Implementation intention (IMP) has recently been highlighted as an effective emotion regulatory strategy (Schweiger Gallo et al., 2009). Most studies examining the effectiveness of IMPs to regulate emotion have relied on self-report measures of emotional change. In two studies we employed electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) in addition to arousal ratings (AR) to assess the impact of an IMP on emotional responses. In Study 1, 60 participants viewed neutral and two types of negative pictures (weapon vs. non-weapon) under the IMP “If I see a weapon, then I will stay calm and relaxed!” or no self-regulatory instructions (Control). In Study 2, additionally to the Control and IMP conditions, participants completed the picture task either under goal intention (GI) to stay calm and relaxed or warning instructions highlighting that some pictures contain weapons. In both studies, participants showed lower EDA, reduced HR deceleration and lower AR to the weapon pictures compared to the non-weapon pictures. In Study 2, the IMP was associated with lower EDA compared to the GI condition for the weapon pictures, but not compared to the weapon pictures in the Warning condition. AR were lower for IMP compared to GI and Warning conditions for the weapon pictures.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/40211
Identification Number/DOI	10.1080/02699931.2015.1049515
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Language and Cognition Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Psychopathology and Affective Neuroscience
Uncontrolled Keywords	Emotion regulation; Implementation intentions; Electrodermal activity; Heart rate.
Publisher	Psychology Press
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