title: Specifying emotional information: Regulation of emotional intensity via executive processes.
abstract: The degree of specificity at which emotional information is activated might determine evoked emotional intensity. However, the nature of this effect remains unclear. Four studies tested (a) whether people hold the naïve theory that activating specific details of emotional information arouses acute feelings; (b) whether an emotionally distressed population (social phobics) also holds that theory; and (c) whether voluntarily focusing on specific aspects of a distressing situation reduces its emotional impact. Results indicate that control as well as emotionally distressed people hold a naïve theory that specifying emotion increases its intensity. However, Studies 3 and 4 showed that voluntarily elaborating specific aspects of a distressing situation reduces distress. Results are discussed in terms of voluntary versus automatic processing of emotional information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Louvain, Louvain, Belgium. Pierre.Philippot@psp.ucl.ac.be
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Philippot
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baeyens
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Douilliez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001332:Automatism; D003071:Cognition; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014836:Volition