Turn that frown upside down : the effect of positive emotional cues on the emotion regulation process of action versus state oriented individuals

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The Effect of Positive Emotional Cues on the Emotion

Regulation Process of Action versus State Oriented

Individuals

Angela Spoor October, 12th, 2015

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Version: Concept version

Author: Angela Spoor

Studentnumber: 6077544

Project: Master’s Thesis

Social Psychology

Word count: 9673/ abstract: 205

First Supervisor: Nils Jostmann

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Abstract

The current study examined differences in emotion regulation between action- and state oriented individuals. Action-oriented individuals are able to break out from distracting cognitions and emotions to facilitate the initiation of planned behavior. On the other hand, state-oriented individuals fixate on negative cognitions and emotions and face difficulties with initiating planned behavior. Specifically, this study investigated the effect of exposure to positive emotional cues on the mood state changes in action versus state oriented individuals under demanding conditions. In an experimental study action versus state oriented

participants listened to an audiotaped text with an emotionally manipulated happy or neutral voice and performed a related task. Current basic affect was measured before, right after and approximately five minutes after the audio task. The results show that a happy voice, in contrast to a neutral voice, caused less decreased positive affect in action-and state oriented participants immediately after performing the task. Also, a happy voice caused more positive affect only in action-oriented participants approximately five minutes after performing the task. It is argued that action-oriented individuals benefit more from positive emotional cues to enhance their mood states via effects of mood contagion. In this way, positive emotional cues benefit emotion regulation for individuals with an action orientation.

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We all live in a world where we are constantly exposed to emotion-arousing stimuli. These stimuli can come from within, like a headache or memories of a loved one, or might be present in the environment, like a crying friend, injustice, or a favorite song on the radio. All kinds of emotional stimuli and events can trigger some sort of emotion, a state of feeling that brings about physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior (Lang, 1995). However, not all of these emotion-arousing stimuli have a strong influence on our mood states (Koole, 2009). For instance, people with high emotional sensitivity have a higher chance of being affected by emotional cues than people low in emotional sensitivity

(Baumann, Kaschel & Kuhl, 2007). More importantly, some emotional cues are kept away from bringing about strong emotions by remaining unnoticed or by becoming the subject of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation helps us to remain our emotional balance and supports our mental health (Gross & Munoz, 2007), physical health (Sapolsky, 2007), relationship satisfaction (Murray, 2005) and work performance (Diefendorf, Hall, Lord, & Strean, 2000).

Some people prove to be better emotion regulators than others. Research demonstrates that effective emotion regulation coincides with the ability to initiate goal-directed action under demanding conditions. Individuals who experience little difficulty initiating goal-directed action (action-oriented individuals) regulate their emotions more effectively than individuals who face greater difficulty in putting their plans into action (state-oriented individuals; Koole & Jostmann, 2004). Central to this study is the nature of the individual differences and the mechanism underlying the more successful emotion regulation in action-oriented individuals.

The first section of this paper gives an overview of the theoretical dimension and builds up to the relevance and hypotheses of this study. The remaining part of this thesis proceeds as follows: the next chapter is concerned with the methodology used for this study.

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The third section presents the findings of the research, focusing on the differences of action- versus state orientation in emotion regulation. In conclusion, chapter four analyses the research conclusions, possible alternative explanations for these conclusions, strengths and weaknesses of the study and suggestions for future research. Chapter five closes this study with a summarized conclusion.

1.1 Mood contagion

We sometimes experience an emotion without knowing what caused it. This phenomenon is called mood contagion (Neumann & Strack, 2000). Mood contagion happens when emotional cues in the environment elicit congruent mood states, mostly out of conscious awareness. Research shows that facial expressions (Hess & Blairy, 2001), body movements (Cacioppo, Priester & Berntson, 1993), bodily postures (Stepper & Strack, 1993) and even subtle changes in the environment (Duckworth, Bargh, Garcia, & Chaiken, 2002) can elicit congruent

emotional reactions.

A study by Neumann and Strack (2000) explains this non-intentional form of mood contagion by suggesting that individuals often unconsciously imitate non-verbal emotional cues. The participants in the study by Neumann and Strack (2000) were told to be tested for text comprehension and listened to a difficult audiotaped text with an emotionless

philosophical content read out to them in a slightly happy or sad voice. Participants completed two questionnaires which recorded their current emotional states and their text comprehension. The results showed that the emotional tone of voice on the audiotape induced a congruent positive basic affective state in the participants. Participants who had been listening to the happy voice reported being happy and participants who had been listening to the sad voice reported being sad. Moreover, the emotional reaction took place despite the participant’s

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incomprehension of the text. Positive and negative emotional cues prove to elicit congruent emotional states even when they act outside of conscious awareness.

1.2 Emotion regulation

It seems that emotional stimuli consciously and unconsciously affect the way we feel. When people experience positive emotions, they will mostly desire to maintain them. However, constant or repeated exposure to negative emotions is never desired. Not being able to regulate negative emotions may seriously harm psychological functioning. At worst, long-term deficits in affect regulation can contribute to all forms of psychopathology (Bradley, 2000; Kring & Werner, 2004). Logically, we all benefit from emotion regulation to keep our feelings in check.

The concept of emotion regulation as it is used throughout this thesis is defined as the ability to self-regulate initial affective responses to emotional cues. Emotions can be increased, maintained, or decreased in order to reach emotional balance (Baumann et al., 2007). At the heart of every emotion lies core affect, which denotes basic affective states of feeling good or bad. The regulation of emotions is aimed at changing the core affect (Russell, 2003) and entails both the regulation of negative and positive affect. Since mainly negative emotions harm psychological functioning, previous emotion regulation studies mainly see into the regulation of negative affect. The present study will also deal with the regulation of specifically the negative emotions.

Emotion regulation, a secondary reaction to emotional stimuli, should however not be confused with emotional sensitivity, the primary reaction to emotional stimuli. Emotion regulation sets in after the unwanted emotional response, the primary reaction, has occurred (Baumann et al., 2007). Although everyone benefits from emotion regulation, not everyone is

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equally good at regulating their emotions. For the present research it is of great importance to get a better understanding of these personal differences in emotion regulation.

1.3 Action versus State Orientation

Emotion regulation not only prevents pain and promotes pleasure but also facilitates goal achievement. Negative emotions sometimes get in the way of pursuing our goals (Carver & Scheier, 1990). According to the Personality Systems Interactions theory (PSI theory; Kuhl, 2000), personality differences in emotion regulation exist to the extent that people are capable of putting goal-directed plans into action. The ability to regulate unwanted or disrupting emotions is linked to the ability to attain action control under demanding circumstances (Koole & Jostmann, 2004).

Action control displays the capability of putting goal-directed plans into action. Regulating emotions that were triggered outside of conscious awareness facilitates having action control by eliminating unwanted emotional disruptions. People differ in their ability to maintain action control under demanding circumstances and can be categorized as either action-oriented or state-oriented by means of the Action Control Scale (ACS90) which was designed to measure people’s personal orientation style (Kuhl, 1994). Action orientation is defined as a metastatic (change-oriented) mode of control in which the initiation of goal-directed plans is facilitated. State orientation, on the other hand, can be described as a

catastatic (change-preventing) mode of control in which the enactment of planned behaviour

is inhibited (Kuhl, 1984). Having an action- or state orientation style is mostly dependent upon earlier experiences and social relationships (Kuhl, 2000).

Having an action-orientation style is related to efficient emotion regulation under demanding or threatening conditions. These conditions can be stressful circumstances, performance pressure or other situations that cause negative emotions. Koole and Jostmann

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(2004; Study 1) showed that action-oriented individuals are better at regulating their emotions than state-oriented individuals under demanding conditions. The participants in the study had to solve two blocks of arithmetic sums. In between the two blocks, one group of participants were told they would be rewarded for a performance improvement on the second block, another group of participants were only told that they had already performed better than average on the first block, and a last group of participants were not told anything and started the second block unannounced. The participants in the reward-condition faced demanding or stressful conditions caused by performance pressure. Basic affective states were measured before the first block, immediately after the second block and ten minutes after completing the second block of arithmetic sums. The results were that action-oriented, and not state-oriented, participants in the reward-condition displayed down-regulation of negative emotions.

Importantly, the decreased negative mood state was not apparent immediately after the induction of stress, but rather when basic affect was measured ten minutes afterwards. The delayed effects demonstrate emotion regulation, not emotional sensitivity. In absence of stress induction, no differences in emotion regulation were found for action versus state oriented participants. The findings relate to later study results by Koole and Fockenberg (2011) which suggest that action- and state oriented individuals are equally affected by positive prime words, but action-oriented individuals are less affected by negative prime words than

state-oriented individuals when faced with demanding conditions. After performance pressure on a

memory task, action-oriented participants responded with less negative affect to negative priming words than state-oriented participants. These results suggest that action-oriented individuals might be able to shield themselves from internalizing negative emotional cues. However, the concrete causal significance between personal orientation style and emotion regulation under demanding conditions remained unclear due to the correlational nature of the study.

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State-oriented individuals tend to fixate on their, mostly negative, cognitive and affective states and thereby decrease their possibilities for efficient emotion regulation (Baumann et al., 2007; Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994). As a result, the implicit mood states of state-oriented individuals are found to be more strongly affected by subliminally presented negative emotional information than the implicit mood states of action-oriented individuals (Jostmann et al., 2005). After exposure to unrecognizable flashes with happy, neutral or angry faces on a computer screen, only state-oriented participants reacted to angry primes with lower basic affect than to happy primes. Clearly, state-oriented individuals failed to down-regulate their negative affect.

It seems that under demanding circumstances, people with an action orientation are better at regulating basic affective responses in reaction to emotional triggers than people with a state orientation. As a result, action- oriented individuals will experience elevated mood and facilitated self-regulation under stressful circumstances (Koole, 2009). On the contrary, when state-oriented individuals face stressful conditions, they will either refrain from emotion regulation or adopt ineffective forms of emotion regulation (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994). Consequently, their negative affect will be maintained and future responses to stressful conditions will consist of negative rumination and inhibited self-regulation (Baumann et al., 2007; Jostmann, Koole, van der Wulp & Fockenberg, 2005; Rothermund, Voss, & Wentura, 2008).

A possible explanation for the existing personality differences in emotion regulation is that under demands action-oriented individuals have a higher implicit awareness of positive emotional cues than state-oriented individuals. In a third study by Koole and Jostmann (2004), action versus state oriented participants had to visualize a demanding relationship by

visualizing a person from their own life who was highly demanding of them. In an allegedly unrelated next task, participants were shown a series of matrices composed of nine schematic

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faces with happy, neutral or angry expressions. In half of the matrices all nine faces had the same emotional expression: happy, neutral or angry. The other matrices displayed one target face with a different emotional expression from the rest of the faces in the background. The task was to detect faces with a different emotional expression from the majority of the faces by pressing a key with either ‘all faces are the same’ or ‘one face is different’. The results reported a higher detection rate of happy faces among angry crowds for action-oriented individuals in comparison to state-oriented individuals. Logically, it seems that action-oriented individuals are faster and more accurate than state-action-oriented individuals in detecting positive stimuli among negative emotional stimuli under demanding conditions.

The findings by Koole and Jostmann (2004; Study 3) suggest that action-oriented individuals might have a well working affective counter-regulation mechanism (Rothermund

et al., 2008). This affective counter-regulation mechanism implies that a positive emotional

state increases the salience of negative information whereas a negative emotional state raises attention focus on positive information (Gilbert et al., 1998). For example,negative affect from acute social exclusion activates an automatic affect regulation process in which positive emotions become highly accessible (DeWall et al., 2011). Along the same lines, a negative emotional state increases the salience of positive emotional cues in action-oriented and not in

state-oriented individuals (Koole and Jostmann, 2004; Study 3). These individual differences

might suggest that action-oriented individuals have a high cognitive-flexibility in shifting between positive and negative emotional information. State-oriented individuals might lack this cognitive-flexibility due to their preoccupation with their current affective state. However, the study failed to address measures of emotional states and so the causal relation between emotional stimuli detection and mood state changes remains unclear.

Building on the research findings by Koole and Jostmann (2004; Study 3), the present study will have its main focus on the effect of exposure to a positive emotional cue on the

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mood states of action versus state oriented participants under demanding conditions. Exposing possible mood changes after exposure to emotional stimuli will help explain the nature of the personal differences in emotion regulation. In the light of the above, it seems plausible that the implicit awareness of positive emotional cues might cause mood contagion effects to elicit congruent positive mood states with which negative emotions become subject of

down-regulation.

To date there has been no reliable evidence that confirm these theoretical speculations. Previous published studies failed to address the direct link between emotional stimuli and mood state changes. The existing evidence that personal orientation style and positive stimuli detection are linked to changes in mood states is inconclusive and not free from deficiencies. The study by Koole and Jostmann (2004) was not specifically designed to examine the link between stimuli detection and mood state changes. Other studies rendered correlational results (Koole & Fockenberg, 2011) or left out baseline or follow-up measures of basic affect

(Jostmann et al., 2005) so that the possible causal relation remains unclear. Given the above-mentioned, I argue that action-oriented individuals might unconsciously use positive emotional cues to up-regulate positive emotions to eliminate negative emotions under demanding conditions. After implicitly detecting a positive cue in the face of negative emotions, action-oriented individuals might benefit to a greater extent from

the presence of positive emotional cues than state-oriented individuals. Assuming the

existence of differences in emotional cue detection, the awareness of the emotional cues will not be direct subject of this study. Rather, this study sets out to further assess the link between emotional cues and emotion regulation via mood contagion effects in action versus state

oriented individuals. A useful paradigm to investigate the effects of emotional cues on

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1.4 The Present Research and Hypotheses

The current study will partly replicate the earlier discussed study by Koole and Jostmann (2004) where participants were placed in a demanding context and performed repeated mood ratings. Also, the study adopts research methods by Neumann and Strack (2000) in using audiotaped texts in a happy and a neutral voice.

In an experimental study, a manipulation of basic affect via audiotaped voices (happy versus neutral) takes place. Basic affect is measured by means of five emotion questions to determine current positive and negative affect at three points in time: time 1: before, time 2: immediately after and time 3: approximately five minutes after the manipulation. By

categorizing the participants as either action-or state oriented by means of the Action Control

Scale (ACS-90; Kuhl, 1994) personal differences in emotion regulation are examined.

Differences in emotion regulation are measured by the differences in basic affect scores between the three basic affect ratings. The first basic affect rating takes place before a

complex philosophical text is read to the participants. The text is a replication of the text used by Neumann and Strack (2000) and is abstract of nature. Therefore, the content of the text will not influence the participants. The text is read in either a happy or a neutral voice and depending on the tone of voice offers the participants either a positive emotional cue or no specific emotional cue. A demanding situation is created by asking the participants to perform the difficult task to understand and remember the text as accurately as possible expected to induce performance pressure. Considering the abstractness and complexity of the text is expected that all participants will experience a demanding situation. The second basic affect rating takes place immediately after listening to the audiotaped text and related task.

According to Koole and Jostmann (2004), Brunstein (1989) and Kazén, Baumann and Kuhl (2003) some time has to pass prior to the onset of affect regulation. Therefore, an unrelated filler task precedes the third basic affect rating.

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The leading research question of the present study is whether differences exist between action- and state oriented individuals in emotion regulation after exposure to a positive emotional cue. This research question supports the study interest in investigating the mechanism underlying emotion regulation. To examine the objectives of the study, the following hypothesis is proposed:

It is expected that the basic affect scores at time 2 and 3 in comparison to time 1 (i.e. before the demand induction) differ between action-oriented and state-oriented individuals across the happy- and neutral voice conditions. Specifically, considering the higher efficiency in emotion regulation (Koole & Jostmann, 2004; Study 1) and the higher implicit awareness of positive emotional cues (Koole & Jostmann, 2004; Study 3) of action-oriented individuals is expected that, corrected for the baseline measurement at time 1, basic affect at time 2 or at time 3 is more positive among action-oriented than among state-oriented participants in the happy voice condition, but not in the neutral voice condition. No specific hypotheses are raised considering the time of the basic affect changes. Basic affect will change at the time of basic affect measurement 2 or 3 as a result of the demanding situation and the emotional tone of voice. Also, with a focus on specifically positive emotional cues, no specific expectations are raised for the basic affect scores in the neutral voice condition, concerning participants who face demanding conditions in absence of a positive cue.

2 Method

2.1 Participants.

Ninety-five Dutch citizens participated in this study. The participants were recruited by means of social media. Participation took place on a voluntary basis. Among the participants were 57 females and 29 males with an average age of 34.8 (SD = 13.58). The design was 2 (personal orientation: action versus state; between participants) x 2 (Voice condition: Happy

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versus Neutral; between participants) x 3 (Basic Affect Rating 1-3: before, immediately after, and approximately five minutes after completing the audiotape task; within participants). The participants were randomly ascribed to one of the two experimental conditions. The main dependent variable consisted of basic affect score differences between the three basic affect measurements. Basic affect score differences were calculated for time 1 to time 2, time 1 to time 3, and time 2 to time 3 and represent increases or decreases in positive feelings.

2.2 Procedure

Participants were recruited via Qualtrics, which is a web-based survey software. The link to the Qualtrics study was advertised on the internet with the help of my personal Facebook site. Participants clicked on the link and automatically started the survey.

Participants were instructed to first fill in a series of questionnaires. The first questionnaire consisted of a couple of items to measure the participant’s present mood state

(pre-measurement). After that, a Dutch version of the Action Control Scale (ACS90; Kuhl, 1994) was administered to measure personality traits of action versus state orientation. Next, participants listened to an audiotaped text with either a happy or a neutral voice telling a complex philosophical story (Neumann & Strack, 2000). Depending on the randomly ascribed condition, participants either listened to a happy or a neutral voice. Consequently, all

participants were given the task to describe the text as accurate as possible. This audio task was included to create a demanding condition that elicits decreased mood states. After hearing the audiotaped text participants filled in a second, identical mood state questionnaire. After that, another questionnaire was administered as part of a filler task. This filler task consisted of some questions about the study environment, text comprehension and affective reactions to the text and the speaker of the text. The filler task provided the participants with some time to deal with the emotions experienced during the audiotape hearing and task. Finally, the

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participants completed the last, identical mood state questionnaire (post-measurement). The experiment was concluded with some general questions about the participants (see appendix C) and a debriefing considering the actual purpose of the study. All participants were thanked for their participation. Emotion regulation was measured by calculating difference scores between the repeated basic affect ratings.

2.3 Materials

Action- versus state orientation. The participants were categorized as either action

oriented or state oriented by means of the Dutch translation of the Action Control Scale (ACS-90; Kuhl, 1994). This instrument measures demand-related (AOD) and threat-related (AOT) action orientation. Two subscales of the ACS-90 were used, both consisting of 12 items. Each of the items describes a particular stressful situation. The participants answered how they would most likely respond to the situation. All 24 items have two alternative answers (A or B), one of which is indicative of action orientation and the other of state orientation.

An example of an AOD scale item is “When I have to solve a difficult problem: (A) I

usually get on it right away: (B) I have trouble sorting out things in my head so that I can get down to working on the problem.” An example of an AOT scale item is “When I´ve worked for weeks on one project and then everything goes completely wrong: (A) It takes me a long time to get over it’ (B) It bothers me for a while, but then I don´t think about it anymore.” In

the first example item answer A, and in the second item answer B reflect an action orientation style. Vice versa, alternative answers B in the first, and A in the second item reflect a state-orientation style. Action-oriented answers were coded with ‘1’ and state-oriented answers were coded with ‘0’. The scores on the separate subscales were summed for all 24 items. Both facets of action orientation are integrated since the demanding situation that is created in this experiment can also be experienced as threatening. With a minimum score of 13, participants

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were categorised as being action-oriented. With a maximum score of 12, participants were categorised as being state-oriented. The psychometric characteristics of this instrument were numerously validated (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994).

Emotion Induction. To examine effects on emotion regulation, participants were

manipulated by inducing mood state deterioration by creating a demanding situation

following the same procedure as Neumann and Strack (2000). The participants listened to a Dutch translation of an abstract and difficult philosophical text by David Hume from his

“Philosophical Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (Herring, 1967). The duration of

the audiotaped text was 3 minutes and 45 seconds and was read in either a happy or neutral female voice. Since Neumann & Strack (2000) found no gender differences in the vocal expressiveness of women and men, only the female speaker was used in this experiment. Immediately after listening to the audiotaped text, participants were given the task to describe what the text was about.

Basic affect. To measure basic affect, a short questionnaire was designed to measure

current positive and negative affect. The questionnaire consisted of 5 items measuring

happiness, relaxation, frustration, satisfaction, irritation and interest. An example of one of the items is “How frustrated are you at the moment?”. All five items were asked in the same manner and answered on 7-points Likert scale, (1= not at all; 7 = very much). The scores for the five items were summed and represent the basic affect scores. Before summing the scores, scores on the negative emotion items frustration and irritableness were recoded (7- item score). A higher score represents more positive affect. The basic affect inventory was found to be highly reliable (5 items; α = .86). See appendix A for the questionnaire in its totality. The basic affect questionnaire was administered at three times, once at the start of the experiment, a second time after listening to the audiotaped text, and a last time after the filler task was completed, approximately five minutes after the audio task took place.

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Text comprehension and affective reactions. Upon the second basic affect

questionnaire, participants answered to the following questions to measure their text

comprehension and affective reactions to the text: “How much did you like the text?”, “How much did you like the speaker of the text?” and “How well did you comprehend the text?”. These questions were taken from the study by Neumann and Strack (2000) to determine if affective reactions to the speaker or the text itself can be explained by impaired text

comprehension. Neumann and Strack (2000) found neither differences in speaker likability nor significant differences in text likability or text comprehension in the neutral and happy voice conditions. The question “How well did you listen to the text?” was included to check if the participants put effort in the task. All items were answered on 7-points Likert scale, (1 = not at all; 7 = very much). The questions were included as part of the filler task. As final part of the filler task, participants answered some questions about the circumstances under which they participated in the experiment, with the answering options: alone, at home, at work, in silence or with sounds in the background. The latter question was asked to check the controlling study environment. The filler task in included in appendix B.

3 Results

Participants. Ninety-five Dutch citizens participated in the study. Six participants were

excluded from the study for reporting to not have been able to properly listen to the text. Three participants were excluded because their serious participation was called into question.

Distribution. The final sample size consisted of 86 participants between the ages of 18

and 58. Among the participants were 57 females (66,3%) and 29 males (33,7%). The equality of the distribution of sex across the two voice conditions was tested with a Chi-squared test and was confirmed. The distribution of men and women across the conditions was not

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neutral and happy voice conditions. Among the participants 45 were randomly assigned to the happy voice condition and 41 participants to the neutral voice condition. 62 participants were classified as being action-oriented and 24 as being state-oriented. The equality of the

distribution of personal orientation across the two voice conditions was tested and confirmed,

χ2 (1) = .045, p = .512. The distribution of action-and state oriented participants across the

two voice conditions was equal and did not significantly differ from the expected values in the four cells, see the distribution in Table 1.

Table 1: The Distribution of Participants between the Conditions and Groups.

Condition Total Happy voice State orientation Action orientation Total 13 32 45

3.1 Basic Affect Ratings

The means and standard deviations of the basic affect scores at the three ratings are presented in Table 2.To examine the effect of the presence or absence of a positive emotional cue on possible changes in positive and negative affect in action versus state oriented individuals, difference scores between basic affect rating 1-2, 1-3 and 2-3 were computed and analyzed. Participants’ basic affect scores were subjected to a 2 (personal orientation) x 2 (voice

condition) x 3 (time of measurement; difference scores) mixed factorial analysis with repeated measures on the last factor.

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Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations of the Basic Affect Scores for Action- and State

Oriented Participants in the Happy and Neutral Voice Conditions at Time 1, 2 and 3.

Happy voice Neutral voice 1 2 3 State M SD Action M SD Total M SD 22.77 23.46 21.08 2.39 4.39 4.97 24.72 23.62 24.91 2.82 5.81 5.94 24.16 23.58 23.80 2.82 5.39 5.89

Note. Higher scores represent more positive affect. Lower scores represent less positive affect.

A maximum basic affect score is a score of 35 and a minimum basic affect score is a score of 5.

Difference scores between basic affect rating 1 and 2. The analysis revealed a main effect of

voice condition, F(1, 82) = 4.24, p = .043, for the basic affect difference scores between time 1 and time 2, which indicated that participants in the happy voice condition had a lower decrease in basic affect scores than participants in the neutral voice condition from time 1 to time 2. A paired samples t-test revealed that participants in the happy voice condition did not significantly decrease in basic affect from time 1 (M = 24.16 , SD = 2.82) to time 2 (M = 23.58 , SD = 5.39), t(44) = .83 , p = .412. Participants in the neutral voice condition significantly decreased in basic affect from time 1 (M = 26.93 , SD = 4.64) to time 2 (M = 24.54 , SD = 5.32), t(40) = 3.58 , p < .001. No basic affect score differences were found

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between action-and state oriented participants, F(1, 82) = .52, p = .471, from time 1 to time 2. Lastly, no interaction effect of voice condition and personal orientation was found for basic affect score differences between time 1 and time 2, F(1, 82) = .85, p = .361.

Basic affect difference scores between time 1 and 3. The analysis revealed a marginal

significant effect of voice condition for basic affect difference scores between time 1 and time 3, F(1, 82) = 3.32, p = .072, which suggests that participants in the happy voice condition had a lower decrease in basic affect scores (M1 = 24.16 vs. M3 = 23.80) than participants in the neutral voice condition (M1 = 26.93 vs. M3 = 24.32) from time 1 to time 3. The analysis failed to reveal an effect of personal orientation between time 1 and time 3, F(1, 82) = 1.23 ,

p = .270, which indicates equal basic affect difference scores for action- and state oriented

participants between time 1 and time 3. Lastly, no interaction effect of voice condition and personal orientation was found for basic affect score differences between time 1 and time 3,

F(1, 82) = .38, p = .537.

Difference scores between basic affect rating 2 and 3. The analysis revealed a

significant main effect of personal orientation for basic affect difference scores between time 2 and time 3, F(1, 82) = 6.17, p = .015, which means that action oriented participants had a higher increase in basic affect from time 2 to time 3 than state oriented participants who displayed lowered basic affect from time 2 to time 3. No main effect of voice condition was found for basic affect difference scores between time 2 and time 3, F(1,82) = .10 , p = .749. The main effect of personal orientation was qualified by a significant interaction effect of voice condition and personal orientation, F(1,83) = 4.34 , p = .040.

To further unpack the interaction effect, a repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine results for action-and state orientation separately. The analysis indicated with a marginal significant effect that action-oriented participants in the happy voice condition had heightened basic affect from time 2 (M = 23.62 , SD = 5.81) to time 3 (M = 24.91 , SD = 5.94),

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F(1,60) = 15.36 , p = .079 in comparison to state-oriented participants in the happy voice

condition who displayed a non-significant decrease in basic affect from time 2 (M = 23.46 ,

SD = 4.39) to time 3 (M = 21.08 , SD = 4.97), F(1,22) = 1.58 , p = .220. Action-and state

oriented participants in the neutral voice conditions did not significantly differ in their basic affect decreases from time 2 to time 3, F(1,39) = .07 , p = .793.

The mean basic affect scores for the action-oriented participants in the happy and neutral voice conditions are displayed in Figure 1 and the mean basic affect scores for the state-oriented participants are displayed in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Mean basic affect scores of the action-oriented participants in the happy and neutral

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and 3: ca. 5 minutes after the audiotape task. Happy = happy voice condition and neutral = neutral voice condition.

Figure 2. Mean basic affect scores of the state-oriented participants in the happy and neutral

voice conditions at times 1: before the audiotape task, 2: immediately after the audiotape task, and 3: ca. 5 minutes after the audiotape task. Happy = happy voice condition and neutral = neutral voice condition.

3.2 Supplementary Analyses

To examine possible effects of voice condition and personal orientation on text

comprehension, text affinity and speaker affinity, some exploratory analyses were conducted. For all three variables a factorial ANOVA was executed. The assumptions of homogeneity and

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normality were satisfactory.

None of the analyses yielded significant main effects or interaction effects. No

differences in text comprehension, text- and speaker affinity were found between participants with an action-or state orientation or between participants in the happy and neutral voice conditions. Neither voice condition nor personal orientation affected text comprehension, text affinity and speaker affinity.

4 Discussion

The present study examined the effect of a positive emotional cue, which was operationalized as the presence of a happy voice, on the basic affect changes of action-and state oriented individuals when placed in a demanding context. The main expectation was that after the demanding situation had occurred; action-oriented participants in the happy voice condition would display down-regulation of negative affect and so, improved mood states. The same result was not expected for state-oriented participants and participants in the neutral voice condition. The effect was expected at the basic affect measurement at time 2 or time 3. The focus of the study was on the differences in emotion regulation in action versus state oriented individuals. The participants were subjected to a difficult audio task in a subtle happy or neutral voice and performed repeated measurements of basic affect. During the study, it was observed how the self-reported basic affective states of action-and state oriented participants altered after the experimental induction of a demanding situation.

The results of the study confirmed that action versus state oriented individuals differ in their capacity to regulate emotions under demanding conditions in the presence of a positive emotional cue. Confirming the hypothesis, action-oriented participants who listened to a happy voice down-regulated their negative affect under demanding circumstances. After exposure to a positive emotional cue, action-oriented individuals displayed higher increases in

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positive affect than state-oriented participants or participants who listened to a neutral voice. The down-regulation of negative affect was not apparent immediately after the task, but rather when basic affect was measured appoximately five minutes after completing the task. Also, the results show only marginally significant differences between action-and state oriented participants in comparing basic affect at time 1 with basic affect at time 3. Action-oriented participants proved to be significantly better at down-regulating negative affect when basic affect at time 2 was compared to basic affect at time 3. With caution is confirmed that action-oriented individuals are better at recovering from negative affect than state action-oriented

individuals after completing a demanding task. The results support the proposed line of theorizing that action-oriented individuals are better at down-regulating negative affect in benefiting by a positive emotional cue.

A noteworthy finding is that at time 2, participants who listened to a happy voice displayed lower basic affect decreases than participants who listened to a neutral voice. The demanding situation as created by the difficult audio task caused increased negative affect in all participants but significantly less impaired mood states after listening to a happy voice. It could be argued that a positive cue elicited positive emotions and partly replaced the negative emotions that were induced by the difficulty of the task. That a happy voice elicits positive affect is in line with the found mood contagion effects by Neumann and Strack (2000). This might imply that positive cues support emotion regulation by means of positive mood

contagion when dealing with negative emotions. This mood contagion effect seems to equally benefit action-and state oriented individuals and is independent of text comprehension or text- and speaker affinity. A more detailed discussion of this study’s findings will follow below.

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Emotional Sensitivity or Emotion Regulation?

In comparison to the first basic affect rating, no specific mood changes for action- and state

oriented participants arise at the second basic affect rating. However, when comparing the second to the third basic affect rating, it seems that action-oriented participants benefited from the positive cue in improving their mood states. This division in results implies that the

present research measures two distinct phenomena. Logically, comparing the first to the second basic affect rating and comparing the second to the third basic affect rating give different results.

I argue that the basic affect rating at time 2, immediately after the audio task, reflects emotional sensitivity, the emotional reaction to the demanding situation as created by the difficult audio task. In line with Neumann and Strack (2004) a mood contagion effect caused all participants who listened to a happy voice to experience to a certain degree feelings of happiness, or positive affect. The elicited positive affect reduced negative affect caused by the demanding situation. Action-and state oriented individuals have an equal emotional reaction to the demanding situation. An alternative explanation for the found results is that

independent of personal orientation style, a happy voice benefits emotion regulation by eliciting positive affect. However, this explanation seems less plausible considering the contradicting results found later in the experiment.

A few minutes after the second basic affect rating, the third basic affect rating reflects emotion regulation in the form of altered basic affective states. The emotional response to the demanding context, which was measured during the second basic affect rating, could be understood as a baseline measure in measuring emotion regulation. The results imply that action-oriented individuals benefit from the presence of a positive emotional cue after they experience worsened basic affective states as a reaction to a demanding situation. The present research suggests that a positive emotional cue improves the mood states of action-oriented

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individuals in the presence of a demanding context. These results validate research conclusions by Koole and Jostmann (2004) that action-oriented individuals are the better emotion regulators. The emotion regulation process of action-oriented individuals is likely supported by a mood contagion effect of positive emotional cues.

That no effects of voice condition and personal orientation were found in comparing basic affect at time 1 with basic affect at time 3 means that the participants did not complete the experiment feeling better than when they started the experiment. However, this does not rule out that emotion regulation took place somewhere in the middle of the experiment. Emotion regulation is conceptualized as a broad concept and does not solely encompass enhancing basic affective states, but also encompasses re-establishing mood states to its initial level after deterioration. The fact that differences in emotion regulation were observed

between the second and final basic affect rating illustrates that a shift in basic affective states took place during the experiment. It appears that a happy voice, a positive emotional cue, helps action-oriented individuals to restore their worsened basic affect after completing a demanding task.

The Personality Systems Interaction theory (PSI theory; Kuhl, 2000) offers a theoretical explanation of the found results. According to this theory, action-oriented individuals are better at regulating their emotions because they have developed stronger connections between their emotion systems and higher executive functions. These strong connections grant action-oriented individuals a high degree of action control that enables them to execute intended behaviors even in the face of demanding or threatening

circumstances. This associative network is termed extension memory, a hypothetical construct that stores knowledge about the self and the environment based on earlier experiences.

Extension memory helps to translate intentions into behavior. Under demanding or

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and executive functions is impeded. In order to restore the connections of extension memory, positive affect is needed to down-regulate negative affect. After restoring the connection with extension memory, initiating goal-directed behavior is facilitated (Kuhl & Kazén, 1999).

The present research suggests that in the face of demanding conditions, action-oriented individuals seem better at up-regulating positive affect after exposure to positive emotional cues. Consequently, action-oriented individuals are able to benefit from a restored connection with extension memory that facilitates initiating planned behavior under stressful or

threatening situations. The present findings illustrate that externally provided positive emotional cues enhance positive mood states in action-oriented individuals and not in state-oriented individuals. This effect is caused by a positive mood contagion effect that seems to operate more efficiently in action-oriented individuals. Based on these findings, I argue that action-oriented individuals implicitly benefit more from positive emotional cues due to a higher cognitive-flexibility in shifting between different emotional and motivational states than state-oriented individuals. Individuals with an action orientation are able to tune to positive cues and facilitate the effects of positive mood contagion even in the presence of a demanding context.

Limitations and Future Perspectives

Although the present research generates very interesting conclusions, the study is not entirely free from deficiencies and leaves many questions for future research.

Emotion regulation. A first remark needs to be made regarding the conceptualization

of emotion regulation. It is difficult to determine where emotional sensitivity ends and emotion regulation begins. Therefore, the present research had to deal with the grey area in which emotional sensitivity is distinguished from emotion regulation. Although it seems plausible to state that the first follow-up measure of basic affect measures emotional

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sensitivity and the second follow-up measure of basic affect measures emotion regulation, the precise onset of emotion regulation and the process of emotion regulation over time remains to some extent ambiguous and requires further examination. Using implicit or physiological measures of basic affect during the performance of a demanding task might help attain a more accurate distinction between emotional sensitivity and emotion regulation.

Methodology. A second comment needs to be placed regarding the relatively small

sample size. Studies with smaller sample sizes may lack sufficient statistical power to make reasonable inferences about the population as a whole. Also, the state-oriented individuals in this study were underrepresented (N = 24 vs N = 62). Future research on the mechanism underlying affect regulation in action versus state oriented participants is desirable. A similar research design using a larger sample size is advisable to secure that the study’s conclusion generalize to the population as a whole.

Also, since a multiple test procedure was used, the significance level α was higher and increased the chance of finding a significant result. Therefore the found results should be interpreted with caution.

Filler task. Another remark is placed with the short duration of the filler task

in-between the second and final basic affect rating. The purpose of the filler task is to give the participants some time to anticipate on their recently experienced affect. Prior research has shown that the effects of action orientation are often most pronounced after a time delay of at least ten minutes (Kazén et al., 2003; Koole & Jostmann, 2004). However, the precise units of time it takes before the intuitive emotion regulation processes begin to take effect is unclear. Due to the controlled nature of the experiment, the duration of the filler task was

approximately five minutes and relatively short. Also, the content of the filler task was still audiotape related and might have encouraged preoccupation with the recently experienced affect. The outcome could have been that less emotion regulation took place or could have

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been observed. Although this study manages to simulate an everyday situation, it is vital to conduct further research on the specific nature of the emotion regulation process using numbered measures of basic affect with longer follow-up times after the experimental manipulation of a demanding situation.

Negative affect. Another notion concerns the present research’s focus on the

down-regulation of negative affect. Emotion down-regulation, in the widest sense of the term, also encapsulates the regulation of other unwanted affect. Positive affect might also be unwanted when it interferes with goal directed behavior (Lindebaum & Jordan, 2012). For instance, enthusiasm and happiness are highly energized emotions that might interfere with having a clear focus or concentration. The ‘positive’ emotions might also be regarded as undesirable and subject to emotion regulation (Lindebaum & Jordan, 2013). Whereas most studies, this study included, shine light on the regulation of negative affect, a future focus on positive emotion regulation is desirable to gain a complete overview of the mechanism underlying the full conceptualization of emotion regulation.

Practical implications. Furthermore, the reader should bear in mind that the current

study is based specifically on one type of positive emotional cues, namely, positive auditory stimuli. Follow-up research could indicate whether the mood enhancement effects in

regulating negative emotions also apply to other positive emotional cues such as visual stimuli, the presence of a loved one, and the recalling of personally relevant positive cognitions.

Finally, the present study assumes that the emotion regulation took place intuitively. Follow-up studies could investigate if consciously focusing on positive cues also proves to help getting rid of negative emotions. If so, future possibilities for state-oriented individuals arise in improving their emotion regulation skills by training themselves to pay attention to personally relevant stimuli that elicit positive emotions. The personal differences in emotion regulation efficiency between action-and state oriented individuals might be taken away by

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strengthening the underlying mechanism that benefits the universal phenomenon of emotion regulation.

5 Conclusion

On the basis of the present research, it appears that individuals with an action orientation style experience enhanced positive affect as a reaction to a positive emotional cue after the

experience of negative affect due to a demanding situation. This means that action-oriented individuals, not state-oriented individuals, benefit from positive emotional cues in the process of emotion regulation. The individual differences in emotion regulation efficiency might be explained by a mechanism that enables action-oriented individuals to a greater extent than state-oriented individuals to benefit from positive mood contagion effects when faced with demanding conditions. The present research supports the PSI theory (Kuhl, 2000) and suggests a higher cognitive flexibility of action-oriented individuals to differentiate between emotional cues in supporting the enhancement of positive affect after the experience of negative affect. Action-oriented individuals seem able to benefit from positive emotional cues while state oriented individuals fail to benefit from positive emotional cues due to cognitive and emotional overload under demanding circumstances. The present research exposes one of the elements underlying personal differences in emotion regulation. Being able to open up to positive emotional cues might be a desirable ability when it comes to down-regulating negative emotions.

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Appendices

Appendix A Basic affect questionnaire

1. How satisfied are you at the moment? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

2. How irritated are you at the moment? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

3. How relaxed are you at the moment? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

4. How frustrated are you at the moment? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

5. How interested are you at the moment? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

Appendix B Additional questionnaire (Filler task)

1. How much did you like the speaker of the text? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

2. How well did you comprehend the text? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

3. How much did you like the text? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

4. How well did you listen to the text? (likert 7-points scale) not at all – very much

5. The last statement of the reader was about:

O Heaven and earth O Truth and lies O Warmth and light

6. Where, and under what circumstances are you participating in this study? O Alone, at home/ at work/ someplace else, in silence

O In cooperation with someone else, at home/ at work/ someplace else

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Appendix C Questionnaire of Demographic Information Q1: I’m a: Male / Female

Q2: My age is……….. Q3: Are you still studying? O yes O no

If O yes

Q3.1 What do you study? ………..

Q3.2 What is the name of your educational institute? ……….. Q3.3 What academic year are you in? O 1 O 2 O 3 O 4 O >4

Q4: So far, what is your highest rounded education? O LBO O MBO O HBO O WO

Q5: Have you ever participated in a parallel study where you had to listen to the same audiotaped text? O yes O no O I don’t remember

Q6: What do you think is the subject of this study? ……….. Q7: Was your participation in this study sincere? O yes O no