Hot or Cold Anger? Verbal and Vocal Expression of Anger While Driving in a Simulated Anger-Provoking Scenario

Extensive research has examined the relationship between driving anger and risky behavior; however, little is known about how drivers express and regulate anger while driving. The present study was designed to examine the verbal and acoustic correlates of driving anger, as well as whether emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal are effective at reducing the outward expression of anger while driving. Forty-four participants were asked to drive in an emotionally neutral and an anger-provoking simulated driving scenarios, while their driving behavior as well as their speech was recorded. Participants were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions, with one group receiving instructions to reappraise the anger-provoking events and a control group receiving no instructions. Results show that in the anger-provoking scenario, participants exhibited more violations, horn-honking, and cursing. Few acoustic variations were detected and were compatible with the acoustic profile of cold anger rather than with the one of hot anger expression. Finally, reappraisal reduced the number of violations only. The implications of these findings are discussed

Difficulties in emotion regulation and risky driving among Lithuanian drivers

Background: Risky driving is a common cause of traffic accidents and injuries. However, there is no clear evidence of how difficulties in emotion regulation contribute to risky driving behavior, particularly in small post-Soviet countries. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between difficulties in emotion regulation and self-reported risky driving behavior in a sample of Lithuanian drivers. Methods: A total of 246 nonprofessional Lithuanian drivers participated in a cross-sectional survey. Difficulties in emotion regulation were assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer 2004), and risky driving behavior was assessed using the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ; Lajunen et al. 2004). Results: Males scored higher than females in aggressive violations and ordinary violations. Females scored higher for the nonacceptance of emotional responses, whereas males had more difficulties with emotional awareness than females. More difficulties in emotion regulation were positively correlated with driving errors, lapses, aggressive violations, and ordinary violations for both males and females. Structural equation modeling showed that difficulties in emotion regulation explained aggressive and ordinary violations more clearly than lapses and errors. When controlling for interactions among the distinct regulation difficulties, difficulties with impulse control and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior predicted risky driving. Furthermore, nonacceptance of emotional responses and limited access to emotion regulation strategies were related to less violations and more driving errors. Conclusion: Emotion regulation difficulties were associated with the self-reported risky driving behaviors of Lithuanian drivers. This provides useful hints for improving driver training programs in order to prevent traffic injuries

Emotion Regulation in Three Cultures: A Multi-contextual and Multi-level Study of Preschool-Age Children in the United States, China and Japan

Emotion regulation (ER) has been studied intensively, yet there are major gaps in research on the critical role of contexts and cultural meanings of these contexts in the development of ER. Moreover, ER involves dynamic regulation at behavioral and neurobiological levels, systems that become sensitive to cultural contexts/priorities for adaptation. However, we know little about how children’s ER systems are sensitive to cultural contexts/priorities, and at which levels of regulatory processing. In my dissertation, using multi-level and multi-contextual assessments of preschoolers in the United States, China and Japan, I will first examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in behavioral aspects of emotion expression and regulation among preschoolers living in three cultures. Second, I will determine whether children’s neurobiological systems of ER are differentially sensitive to contexts. Finally, I will examine how cultural contexts/priorities may shape children’s ER at both behavioral and physiological levels (emotional expressions and cortisol reactivity). I conclude by discussing implications for understanding ER as a complex system in cross-cultural perspectives.PHDPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/163027/1/kaip_1.pd

The development of the five mini-theories of self-determination theory: an historical overview, emerging trends, and future directions

Self-determination theory is a macro-theory of human motivation, emotion, and personality that has been under development for 40 years following the seminal work of Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. Self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985b, 2000; Niemiec, Ryan, & Deci, in press; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Vansteenkiste, Ryan, & Deci, 2008) has been advanced in a cumulative, research-driven manner, as new ideas have been naturally and steadily integrated into the theory following sufficient empirical support, which has helped SDT maintain its internal consistency. To use a metaphor, the development of SDT is similar to the construction of a puzzle. Over the years, new pieces have been added to the theory once their fit was determined. At present, dozens of scholars throughout the world continue to add their piece to the ‘‘SDT puzzle,’’ and hundreds of practitioners working with all age groups, and in various domains and cultures, have used SDT to inform their practice. Herein, we provide an historical overview of the development of the five mini-theories (viz., cognitive evaluation theory, organismic integration theory, causality orientations theory, basic needs theory, and goal content theory) that constitute SDT, discuss emerging trends within those mini-theories, elucidate similarities with and differences from other theoretical frameworks, and suggest directions for future researc

Investigating Emotions in Creative Design

A wealth of research has suggested that emotions play a significant role in the creative problem solving process, but less work has focused on investigating the role of emotions in the design process. This is surprising given that creative problem solving lies at the heart of the design processes. In an exploratory study we interviewed 9 expert designers about their emotions during the design process. The content analysis allowed us to identify the various types of emotions relevant in the design process and to extend Wallas’ model of creative problem solving with emotional components for each of its stages. In addition, we identified two important roles of emotions in design and several ways in which expert designers regulate their emotions. We discussed the theoretical and practical applications of our work

What If Your Car Would Care? Exploring Use Cases For Affective Automotive User Interfaces

In this paper we present use cases for affective user interfaces (UIs) in cars and how they are perceived by potential users in China and Germany. Emotion-aware interaction is enabled by the improvement of ubiquitous sensing methods and provides potential benefits for both traffic safety and personal well-being. To promote the adoption of affective interaction at an international scale, we developed 20 mobile in-car use cases through an inter-cultural design approach and evaluated them with 65 drivers in Germany and China. Our data shows perceived benefits in specific areas of pragmatic quality as well as cultural differences, especially for socially interactive use cases. We also discuss general implications for future affective automotive UI. Our results provide a perspective on cultural peculiarities and a concrete starting point for practitioners and researchers working on emotion-aware interfaces

Beliefs about difficult feelings

Section A provides a review of the emotional and experiential avoidance literature with a focus on determining the proximal psychological factors that might lead individuals to avoid experiencing feelings. This section highlights the importance of beliefs, judgements and appraisals about the acceptability of negative emotions, as well as fears about the physical, psychological and social consequences of tolerating internal distress as potential drivers of emotional avoidance. Section B describes the development of a new scale to identify and measure beliefs about experiencing difficult emotions. The paper gives a background and rationale for the study and outlines the methodology that was utilised to construct and psychometrically evaluate the Beliefs about Difficult Feelings Scale (BDFS). 304 participants completed the scale online along with related measures. The six clusters of beliefs that emerged from a factor analysis of 90 pilot items include Catastrophic Beliefs, Emotions are Useful, Negative Evaluation from Others, Emotions are Exhausting/Frustrating, Emotions are Transient and Emotions are Pointless. The psychometric properties of the final 29-item BDFS are promising. The new measure demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity, however further psychometric evaluation is needed on new samples to verify these preliminary finding

User-friendly interactive affective system to leverage aggressive driving behavior

Aggressive driving behavior has been proven to be one of the major contributors to road accidents. Traditional solutions to leverage aggressive driving behavior still have some obvious short comings such as low user experience and unsatisfactory effectiveness. This article explores user-friendly design method for intervening aggressive driving behavior based on human-centered motivation theory such as persuasive technology. We proposed an interactively affective system based on design ethnography and persuasive technology that offered drivers an emotional mediator and allowed them to express their feelings in a natural way that does not affect traffic. We validated our design and system in a driving simulating environment with 16 participants, results showed that our system could promote drivers emotional state effectively. Our system have broad application prospect such as traffic safety, driver health, intelligent cockpit human-vehicle interaction