Ready for the worst? Negative affect in anticipation of a stressor does not protect against affective reactivity.
affect
anticipation
emotion
expectations
experience sampling
Journal
Journal of personality
ISSN: 1467-6494
Titre abrégé: J Pers
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 2985194R
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
10 2023
10 2023
Historique:
revised:
11
09
2022
received:
20
07
2021
accepted:
18
10
2022
medline:
4
9
2023
pubmed:
23
10
2022
entrez:
22
10
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Lay wisdom suggests feeling negative while awaiting an upcoming stressor-anticipatory negative affect-shields against the blow of the subsequent stressor. However, evidence is mixed, with different lines of research and theory indirectly suggesting that anticipatory negative affect is helpful, harmful, or has no effect on emotional outcomes. In two studies, we aimed to reconcile these competing views by examining the affective trajectory across hours, days, and months, separating affective reactivity and recovery. In Study 1, first-year students (N = 101) completed 9 days of experience sampling (10 surveys/day) as they received their first-semester exam grades, and a follow-up survey 5 months later. In Study 2, participants (N = 73) completed 2 days of experience sampling (60 surveys/day) before and after a Trier Social Stress Test. We investigated the association between anticipatory negative affect and the subsequent affective trajectory, investigating (1) reactivity immediately after the stressor, (2) recovery across hours (Study 2) and days (Study 1), and (3) recovery after 5 months (Study 1). Across the two studies, feeling more negative in anticipation of a stressor was either associated with increased negative affective reactivity, or unassociated with affective outcomes. These results run counter to the idea that being affectively ready for the worst has psychological benefits, suggesting that instead, anticipatory negative affect can come with affective costs.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1123-1139Informations de copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Références
Barsics, C., Van der Linden, M., & D'Argembeau, A. (2016). Frequency, characteristics, and perceived functions of emotional future thinking in daily life. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(2), 217-233. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1051560
Bridgland, V. M. E., Green, D. M., Oulton, J. M., & Takarangi, M. K. T. (2019). Expecting the worst: Investigating the effects of trigger warnings on reactions to ambiguously themed photos. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 25(4), 602-617. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000215
Carroll, P., Sweeny, K., & Shepperd, J. A. (2006). Forsaking optimism. Review of General Psychology, 10(1), 56-73. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.10.1.56
Dejonckheere, E., Mestdagh, M., Verdonck, S., Lafit, G., Ceulemans, E., Bastian, B., & Kalokerinos, E. K. (2019). The relation between positive and negative affect becomes more negative in response to personally relevant events. Emotion, 21, 326-336. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000697
Freeston, M. H., Rhéaume, J., Letarte, H., Dugas, M. J., & Ladouceur, R. (1994). Why do people worry? Personality and Individual Differences, 17(6), 791-802. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(94)90048-5
Frijda, N. H. (2017). The laws of emotion. Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315086071
Golub, S. A., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2009). Anticipating one's troubles: The costs and benefits of negative expectations. Emotion, 9(2), 277-281. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014716
Goodman, W. K., Janson, J., & Wolf, J. M. (2017). Meta-analytical assessment of the effects of protocol variations on cortisol responses to the Trier social stress test. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 80, 26-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.02.030
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. (2012). A very brief measure of the big-five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504-528. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271-299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271
Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781
John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., & Kentle, R. L. (1991). Big five inventory (BFI) [Database record]. APA PsycTests. https://doi.org/10.1037/t07550-000
Kalokerinos, E. K., Erbas, Y., Ceulemans, E., & Kuppens, P. (2019). Differentiate to regulate: Low negative emotion differentiation is associated with ineffective use but not selection of emotion-regulation strategies. Psychological Science, 30(6), 863-879. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619838763
Kalokerinos, E. K., Murphy, S. C., Koval, P., Bailen, N. H., Crombez, G., Hollenstein, T., Gleeson, J., Thompson, R. J., Van Ryckeghem, D. M. L., Kuppens, P., & Bastian, B. (2020). Neuroticism may not reflect emotional variability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(17), 9270-9276. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919934117
Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K.-M., & Hellhammer, D. H. (1993). The ‘Trier social stress test’-A tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28(1-2), 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1159/000119004
Koval, P., Burnett, P. T., & Zheng, Y. (2021). Emotional inertia: On the conservation of emotional momentum. In C. E. Waugh & P. Kuppens (Eds.), Affect dynamics (pp. 63-94). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82965-0_4
Koval, P., & Kuppens, P. (2012). Changing emotion dynamics: Individual differences in the effect of anticipatory social stress on emotional inertia. Emotion, 12(2), 256-267. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024756
Kudielka, B. M., Hellhammer, D. H., & Kirschbaum, C. (2007). Ten years of research with the Trier social stress test-Revisited. In Social neuroscience: Integrating biological and psychological explanations of social behavior (pp. 56-83). The Guilford Press.
Kuppens, P., Allen, N. B., & Sheeber, L. B. (2010). Emotional inertia and psychological maladjustment. Psychological Science, 21(7), 984-991. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610372634
Leys, C., Ley, C., Klein, O., Bernard, P., & Licata, L. (2013). Detecting outliers: Do not use standard deviation around the mean, use absolute deviation around the median. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 764-766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.03.013
Llera, S. J., & Newman, M. G. (2010). Effects of worry on physiological and subjective reactivity to emotional stimuli in generalized anxiety disorder and nonanxious control participants. Emotion, 10, 640-650. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019351
Loossens, T., Tuerlinckx, F., & Verdonck, S. (2021). A comparison of continuous and discrete time modeling of affective processes in terms of predictive accuracy. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 6218. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85320-4
McLaughlin, K. A., Borkovec, T. D., & Sibrava, N. J. (2007). The effects of worry and rumination on affect states and cognitive activity. Behavior Therapy, 38(1), 23-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2006.03.003
Meers, K., Dejonckheere, E., Kalokerinos, E. K., Rummens, K., & Kuppens, P. (2020). MobileQ: A free user-friendly application for collecting experience sampling data. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 1510-1515. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-019-01330-1
Neubauer, A. B., Smyth, J. M., & Sliwinski, M. J. (2018). When you see it coming: Stressor anticipation modulates stress effects on negative affect. Emotion, 18(3), 342-354. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000381
Newman, M. G., Jacobson, N. C., Zainal, N. H., Shin, K. E., Szkodny, L. E., & Sliwinski, M. J. (2019). The effects of worry in daily life: An ecological momentary assessment study supporting the tenets of the contrast avoidance model. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(4), 794-810. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619827019
Newman, M. G., & Llera, S. J. (2011). A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: A review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(3), 371-382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.01.008
Pekrun, R. (2006). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 315-341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-006-9029-9
Piazza, J. R., Charles, S. T., Sliwinski, M. J., Mogle, J., & Almeida, D. M. (2013). Affective reactivity to daily stressors and long-term risk of reporting a chronic physical health condition. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 45(1), 110-120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9423-0
Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161-1178. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714
Sanson, M., Strange, D., & Garry, M. (2019). Trigger warnings are trivially helpful at reducing negative affect, intrusive thoughts, and avoidance. Clinical Psychological Science, 7(4), 778-793. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702619827018
Smith, C. A., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1987). Patterns of appraisal and emotion related to taking an exam. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(3), 475-488. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.3.475
Steegen, S., Tuerlinckx, F., Gelman, A., & Vanpaemel, W. (2016). Increasing transparency through a multiverse analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(5), 702-712. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616658637
Sweeny, K., Carroll, P. J., & Shepperd, J. A. (2006). Is optimism always best? Future outlooks and preparedness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(6), 302-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00457.x
Sweeny, K., & Cavanaugh, A. G. (2012). Waiting is the hardest part: A model of uncertainty navigation in the context of health news. Health Psychology Review, 6(2), 147-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2010.520112
Sweeny, K., & Falkenstein, A. (2015). Is waiting the hardest part? Comparing the emotional experiences of awaiting and receiving bad news. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(11), 1551-1559. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215601407
Sweeny, K., & Krizan, Z. (2013). Sobering up: A quantitative review of temporal declines in expectations. Psychological Bulletin, 139(3), 702-724. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029951
Sweeny, K., Reynolds, C. A., Falkenstein, A., Andrews, S. E., & Dooley, M. D. (2016). Two definitions of waiting well. Emotion, 16(1), 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000117
Sweeny, K., & Shepperd, J. A. (2010). The costs of optimism and the benefits of pessimism. Emotion, 10(5), 750-753. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019016
van Dijk, W. W., Zeelenberg, M., & van der Pligt, J. (2003). Blessed are those who expect nothing: Lowering expectations as a way of avoiding disappointment. Journal of Economic Psychology, 24(4), 505-516. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4870(02)00211-8
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063-1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063
Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3), 131-134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00355.x
Wilson, T. D., Lisle, D. J., Kraft, D., & Wetzel, C. G. (1989). Preferences as expectation-driven inferences: Effects of affective expectations on affective experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(4), 519-530. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.4.519