0000000000656573
AUTHOR
Peter Zeier
Script-based Reappraisal Test - Introducing a new paradigm to investigate the effect of reappraisal inventiveness on reappraisal effectiveness
The ability to regulate emotions is essential for psychological well-being. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the specific dynamics of emotion regulation. In a new approach, we developed a novel paradigm – the Script-based Reappraisal Test (SRT) – to measure the processes involved in reappraisal, especially reappraisal inventiveness, i.e. the ability to create multiple and differing reappraisals. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) experimentally validate the SRT and (2) investigate whether reappraisal inventiveness increases reappraisal effectiveness. Healthy students (N = 143) completed the SRT. In this task, we presented everyday emotional situations in textual fo…
It's worth the trouble: Stressor exposure is related to increased cognitive reappraisal ability
Recent theories propose moderate (compared to high or no) stressor exposure to promote emotion regulation capacities. More precisely, stressful situations are expected to serve as practice opportunities for cognitive reappraisal (CR), that is, the reinterpretation of a situation to alter its emotional impact. Accordingly, in this study, we expect an inverted U-shaped relationship between exposure to daily hassles and performance in a CR task, that is, best reappraisal ability in individuals with a history of moderate stressor exposure. Participants (N = 165) reported the number of daily hassles during the last week as indicator of stressor exposure and completed the Script-based Reappraisal…
Investigating individual stress reactivity: High hair cortisol predicts lower acute stress responses
Identifying individual differences in stress reactivity is of particular interest in the context of stress-related disorders and resilience. Previous studies already identified several factors mediating the individual stress response of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). However, the impact of long-term HPA axis activity on acute stress reactivity remains inconclusive. To investigate associations between long-term HPA axis variation and individual acute stress reactivity, we tested 40 healthy volunteers for affective, endocrine, physiological, and neural reactions to a modified, compact version of the established in-MR stress paradigm ScanSTRESS (ScanSTRESS-C). Hair cortisol con…
Cognitive emotion regulation withstands the stress test: An fMRI study on the effect of acute stress on distraction and reappraisal
Cognitive emotion regulation is a key mechanism for the maintenance of mental health, but may fail, when individuals are exposed to acute stress. To date, it is not well understood whether and to what extent acute stress effects contribute to impairments in emotion regulation capacities as the sparse existing studies have yielded heterogeneous results, indicating that stress timing might be a crucial factor.In the present study, 81 healthy participants underwent either an acute stress task (ScanSTRESS-C; n = 40) or a control condition (n = 41) while lying in the MRI scanner. In the subsequent Cognitive Emotion Regulation Task (CERT), participants were confronted with neutral or negative pic…