Physiological and cognitive effects of expressive dissonance.

Full Abstract

Emotional well-being depends in part on affect modulation. The present study extends research on emotion regulation by assessing the physiological and cognitive effects of a novel response-focused regulation strategy, termed 'expressive dissonance.' Expressive dissonance refers to the incongruence between an emotional state (e.g., sadness) and a behavioral expression (e.g., a smile). Fifty-five participants watched a series of sad film clips in which they were asked to either naturally watch or express the opposite of what they were feeling. Results suggest that persons using the expressive dissonant strategies evidenced greater sympathetic arousal and performed worse on subsequent memory tasks than persons in the natural-watch conditions.

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Author information

Author/s: Robinson, Jennifer L (JL); Demaree, Heath A (HA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Case Western Reserve University, Mather Memorial Building, Room 109, 11220 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH 44106-7123, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Brain and cognition (Brain Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 63 (issue 1) : pp 70-8

Dates: Created 2006/12/12; Completed 2007/03/29;

PMID: 17046129, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adaptation, Psychological - physiology
Analysis of Variance
Cognitive Dissonance
Emotions - physiology
Female

Female
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
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