The Role of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expectations in Dealing with Social Feedback

Abstract

Whereas emotion regulation (ER) in response to distressing events is widely studied, the mechanisms underlying adaptive ER while anticipating these events are still unknown. In this study, we investigated how ER strategies and expectation influence (1) individuals’ anticipatory and online processing of self-relevant events, and (2) their affective response to them. Sixty-one healthy female participants were exposed to bogus positive and negative social feedback under reappraisal and watch instructions (no regulation). During the anticipatory period, participants were either expecting negative feedback or they had no expectation regarding the valence of the upcoming self-relevant feedback. Hence, negative feedback was, respectively, expected or unexpected. Participants’ affective responses were collected via self-report and electromyographic activity over the corrugator muscle. Results showed that participants’ negative affect (based on both self reports and EMG) was reduced by the instructions to reappraise as compared to the watch condition. Yet, such beneficial effect of reappraisal was: 1) not observed during the anticipation phase; and 2) less effective when social feedback was expected (as compared to not expected) prior to its presentation. Possibly, cognitive reappraisal might be less able to overcome the influence of negative forecasting of self-relevant negative emotional stimuli. Research findings are discussed in light of potential mechanisms underlying impaired adaptive emotion regulation in patients vulnerable for mood disorders.

The role of cognitive reappraisal and expectations in dealing with social feedback.

“…To deliver social feedback, we modified an experimental paradigm developed in our lab, which has been shown to influence affect as well as emotional and cognitive processing (Allaert et al, 2020; Nasso et al, 2020; Vanderhasselt et al, 2015). As a cover story, participants were told that the aim of this study, run in collaboration with a foreign university, was to investigate the development of first impressions across cultures.…”

“…The goal of the present study was to investigate whether emotional responses elicited by the anticipation and reception of self-relevant social feedback can be downregulated by cognitive reappraisal. Hence, using a paradigm developed in our lab (Allaert, De Raedt, Sanchez-Lopez, Baeken, & Vanderhasselt, 2020; Nasso, Vanderhasselt, & De Raedt, 2020; Vanderhasselt, De Raedt, Nasso, Puttevils, & Mueller, 2018; Vanderhasselt, Remue, Ng, Mueller, & De Raedt, 2015), we exposed participants to positive and negative social feedback and used informative and uninformative cues to manipulate their expectation regarding its valence. In addition, we introduced a within-subject manipulation of ER strategies (i.e., watch vs. reappraisal).…”