Emotion最新文献

Most research on the development of emotion recognition has focused on facial expressions, leaving a relative gap in our understanding of how children interpret emotions through body movements. This study examined developmental changes in the ability to recognize basic emotions (joy, anger, fear, and sadness) from human biological motion presented in point-light displays (HBM-PLDs), with particular attention to how these changes vary depending on the type of emotion and age. One hundred twenty-eight preschool and primary school children aged 4-12 years participated in two experimental tasks involving the explicit recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs. The results highlight a clear developmental progression in the recognition of emotions from HBM-PLDs with increasing age. This developmental change appears to follow a curvilinear trajectory, with an inflection point around 8.5 years of age (100 months). However, the study further reveals that this inflection point differs depending on the specific discrete emotion considered. Joy seems to be recognized as early as age 4, followed by anger between ages 5 and 6, sadness between ages 6 and 7.5, and finally fear after age 9-10. This represents an important contribution, demonstrating that the improvement in emotion recognition from body movement is not homogeneous but modulated according to the discrete emotion. These findings support the idea that the development of discrete emotion recognition is independent of the modality of presentation (facial expressions, body movements, vocal cues, etc.) and suggest that emotion recognition may rely on a modality-independent and unified developmental process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Affective inertia-the persistence of emotional states over time-has garnered growing attention in affective science due to its implications for psychological well-being and emotion regulation. Yet empirical progress has been hindered by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges, and statistical limitations. Here, we identify seven interrelated challenges spanning three domains: conceptual (e.g., conflating inertia with emotional stability), measurement (e.g., misalignment between ordinal data and parametric models), and statistical modeling (e.g., violations of stationarity assumptions). Addressing these challenges requires dynamic approaches that capture the temporal complexity of emotional processes and differentiate adaptive from maladaptive persistence. We review theoretical developments and empirical innovations-including advances in modeling, assessment design, and assumption testing-that offer a path forward. By clarifying the measurement and interpretation of affective inertia, this work aims to enhance both basic emotion research and its clinical translation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous studies have shown that emotional dynamics, that is, moment to moment variability and inertia of emotional states, are related to depression, but have no significant contribution after their overlap with mean affect is taken into account. However, few studies considered clinical samples. In our study, we compared a sample of euthymic formerly depressed persons (n = 94) at high risk of depression recurrence and healthy controls with no history of depression (n = 56), while using ecological momentary assessment data collected 10 times per day. The samples differed with respect to indicators of negative and positive affect dynamics computed from ecological momentary assessment data. However, when jointly considering all of emotional variability, inertia, and mean affect, only emotional inertia emerged as a significant predictor of group assignment. Specifically, the higher emotional inertia of positive affect proved to be the most influential predictor of belonging to the sample of formerly depressed persons versus being a healthy control. The finding remained even after controlling for differences in depressive symptoms between the samples. These findings indicate that positive affect inertia may characterize formerly depressed persons after symptoms have subsided, potentially indicating vulnerability for recurrence of depression episodes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

This study described the relationship between discrete emotions and their underlying components from a detailed data set of continuous annotations of more than 50 emotion variables during short films. Theoretical accounts such as appraisal models predict that emotions arise through a combination of distinctive components engaged by the evaluation of different situational dimensions. Here we build on the component process model that highlights a prime role of appraisals which determine motivation, expression, physiology, and feeling features associated with emotion experience. We obtained continuous annotations from all these domains during movie watching and observed a hierarchical organization of discrete emotions by appraisal of valence and self-relevance. Furthermore, we applied predictive models to understand the contribution of different emotion components to discrete emotion categories. We found that all 13 discrete emotions in our data set were reliably predicted as a function of particular emotion components. Our study contributed key insights using rich descriptors and machine learning to dissect the nature of emotion and supports the notion that appraisal processes are a key component in the differentiation of emotion experience. These findings also have implications on the complexity and function of emotion as an adaptive process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The study of emotions is complex due to the diverse methodologies used. One effective mood induction procedure is the use of film clips. Early Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves behavioral and emotional changes affecting mood and relationships, yet little research explores emotional experiences in its early stages. This study examined emotional reactivity in older adults with AD using film clips to elicit pleasant and unpleasant affective states, based on dimensional and discrete emotion models. The data were collected between 2022 and 2024. The sample included older adults with mild AD (n = 42) and healthy older adults (n = 56). We assessed valence, arousal, and discrete emotions (amusement, tenderness, anger, fear, sadness, disgust) in response to five emotional targets, an AD-related clip, and two neutral stimuli for baseline and recovery. The AD group found the amusement clip less pleasant than the healthy controls group. Arousal was similar across groups. Emotional reactivity was generally attenuated in the AD group, with the presence of mixed emotions and difficulties in emotional recovery, showing higher levels of sadness and disgust. In the AD-related clip, the AD group also experienced less sadness and tenderness than the healthy controls. Our findings suggest early deterioration in emotional processing. The sample was ethnically homogeneous, consisting entirely of Spanish-origin participants; future studies should thus include more diverse populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Forgiveness is crucial for restoring social bonds, yet how it shapes impressions of poor treatment remains unclear. Building on memory updating research, we propose forgiveness can change the memory of a negative experience by incorporating information considered during the forgiveness process. On Day 1 of neuroimaging, participants (N = 23, data collected 2022-2023) observed which stimuli two other participants (or "targets") chose for them to view, believing the targets selected from neutral and negative images (encoding phase). Most chosen images were highly negative, indicating the target had treated the participant poorly. Participants then learned each target's reasoning, with one being apologetic and the other nonchalant. While still undergoing neuroimaging, participants rated the negative images again while instructed to either "forgive the target" or simply "view the selections again" for the apologetic and nonchalant targets, respectively (experimental manipulation phase). On Day 2 of neuroimaging, participants rerated the images (reconsideration phase). Forgiveness reduced the negativity ratings of the images, an effect that persisted into Day 2. Two brain regions demonstrated that information considered while forgiving was incorporated into the memory of a forgiven act: the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, associated with mentalizing, and the posterior hippocampus, linked to episodic memory. These findings suggest at least one way forgiveness works is by understanding the transgressor, updating related details, and consolidating them into memory. Instead of "forgive and forget," forgiveness may involve a "forgive and update" process, revising memories to aid reconciliation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Habituation to pleasant or unpleasant odors may reflect a dynamic affective process influenced by individuals' physiological and psychological states. This study investigated the effects of acute stress on habituation patterns to odors with varying valence. Forty male participants from an ethnically homogeneous Chinese sample completed the socially evaluated cold pressor task and a control task in randomized order. Participants then performed two olfactory habituation tasks, which involved 20 consecutive presentations of positive-valence odors (phenethyl alcohol or orange oil) and negative-valence odors (4-methylpentanoic acid or 1-butanol; NVO). Generalized linear mixed-effects model analyses revealed that acute stress reduced affective habituation to NVO, F(1, 51) = 4.6, p = .037, but accelerated habituation to positive-valence odors, F(1, 41) = 29.1, p < .001. Higher cortisol responses were marginally associated with faster habituation to NVO (r = .33, p = .055). Exploratory analyses indicated that stress-related reductions in affective habituation to NVO were observed among cortisol nonresponders, but not responders. These findings suggest that acute psychosocial stress alters affective habituation to odors in a valence-dependent manner, with cortisol responses potentially contributing to this modulation. Future research with larger, mixed-gender samples is needed to examine the generalizability of these results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous studies have predominantly viewed affective variability as detrimental to well-being, suggesting an unstable emotional state. However, research on early warning signs of affective disorders suggests that affective variability may also be adaptive, particularly when individuals' affective well-being is low. Here, we sought to test that greater affective variability would predict increased affective well-being over time (Hypothesis 1), or that better affective well-being would lead to lower affective variability over time (Hypothesis 2), and that the first relationship would be stronger for individuals with low prior levels of affective well-being (Hypothesis 3) and weaker for individuals high in neuroticism (Hypothesis 4). We tested this set of hypotheses by reanalyzing 14 ambulatory assessment data sets (N = 2,374 participants with 25,478 observations at the day level). Our integrative data analysis revealed that greater affective variability at time t₁ was significantly associated with better subsequent affective well-being at time t₂ at the day and year level. In addition, this association was significantly moderated by initial levels of affective well-being and by neuroticism, although the evidence for the latter was limited. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between within-person processes and between-person differences: Experiencing greater affective variability relative to others may indicate a lower level of overall affective well-being. At the same time, experiencing greater affective variability when feeling lower than usual may signal the potential for improvement in one's affective experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Enthusiasm for personalized psychological interventions far outstrips our understanding of how to best tailor these interventions to individuals. The first step in bridging this gap is to identify individual characteristics that predict intervention outcomes. Across three studies (N = 444; between 2023 and 2024), we address this issue by examining the role of prior beliefs in reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy common to many types of psychological interventions. In Studies 1 and 2, we instructed participants to reappraise negative stimuli in a way that was consistent with different beliefs. We found that more belief-congruent (vs. less belief-congruent) reappraisals were more believable and more effective for regulating emotions. In Study 3, we asked participants to rank sets of standardized reappraisals. We found substantial heterogeneity in which reappraisals were preferred and this heterogeneity was partially explained by people's prior beliefs. This work suggests that, in the context of U.S.-based participants, beliefs may be leveraged to systematically personalize reappraisal interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

This research investigated the role of schadenfreude-feelings of joy at a target's misfortunes-in people's legitimization of illegal attacks against corrupt institutions with formal authority. Five experiments (Experiment 1 conducted in 2018, the others in 2024-2025; Experiments 2-5 preregistered) in the United Kingdom and Italy (N total = 1,676) employed realistic scenarios involving cyberattacks and violent intimidation from criminal groups. Across studies, exposure to institutional corruption increased support for illegal retaliation, and schadenfreude consistently mediated this effect. In Experiments 2 and 5, heightened anger and disgust at the institution's corrupt behavior and, in Experiment 3, reduced anger and disgust toward the illegal attacks themselves did not disrupt the link between schadenfreude and legitimization. Experiments 4 and 5 employed experimental approaches to mediation. Experiment 4 employed a manipulation-of-mediation-as-a-moderator design by altering the attackers' group affiliation. Results provided experimental support for the hypothesized mediational role of schadenfreude, indicating that attacks perpetrated by a disliked outgroup are less likely to evoke schadenfreude and, in turn, legitimacy. Experiment 5 adopted a causal chain approach and manipulated the satisfaction elicited by the attacks. More satisfying attacks (vs. baseline) elicited stronger legitimization, even when controlling for general appraisals of deservingness. Collectively, the findings highlight the importance of positive moral affect elicited by the misfortunes befalling a target as a psychological mechanism underpinning support for illegal system-disrupting actions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).