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The Down-Regulation of Disgust by Implementation Intentions: Experiential and Physiological Concomitants

Gomez, Patrick ; Scholz, Urte ; Danuser, Brigitta

In: Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 2015, vol. 40, no. 2, p. 95-106

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    Titre
    • The Down-Regulation of Disgust by Implementation Intentions: Experiential and Physiological Concomitants
    Auteur
    • Gomez, Patrick. Institut universitaire romand de Santé au Travail (Institute for Work and Health), University of Lausanne and University of Geneva, Route de la Corniche 2, 1066, Epalinges-Lausanne, Switzerland
    • Scholz, Urte. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Applied Social Psychology, Binzmuehlestrasse 14 / Box 14, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Danuser, Brigitta. Institut universitaire romand de Santé au Travail (Institute for Work and Health), University of Lausanne and University of Geneva, Route de la Corniche 2, 1066, Epalinges-Lausanne, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Langue
    • Inglese
    Publié dans
    • Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 2015, vol. 40, no. 2, p. 95-106. Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com
    Autre version électronique
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:331529
    Summary
    Emotion regulation plays a key role in mental health and psychopathology. Therefore, it seems important to develop effective forms of emotion regulation. Implementation intentions are if-then plans that help people attain their self-regulatory goals. Perspective-taking and response-focused implementation intentions have been shown to reduce feelings of unpleasantness and arousal, respectively, in response to briefly presented disgusting pictures. The present study addressed the open research questions whether forming these types of implementation intentions is effective in regulating affect during prolonged presentation of disgusting pictures, and whether it is associated with changes in physiological arousal. Eighty-one participants viewed disgusting, neutral, and pleasant pictures of 6s duration under four instructions: the goal intention to not get disgusted, this goal intention furnished with a perspective-taking or a response-focused implementation intention, and no emotion regulation instructions. The dependent variables were ratings of disgust, valence, arousal, and electrodermal activity. Only perspective-taking implementation intention participants significantly reduced their disgust and unpleasantness as compared to goal-intention and control participants. Arousal and skin conductance did not significantly differ between conditions. The effectiveness of response-focused but not perspective-taking implementation intentions seems to be substantially reduced during sustained exposure duration.