How is shame resolved? An experimental study on the roles of anger and sadness

Introduction: The aim of the current study was to explore emotional sequences involved in resolving shame, with a primary focus on comparing the effects of facilitating anger vs. facilitating sadness in the context of shame activation. The main hypothesis posited that facilitating anger, as opposed to sadness, would better promote emotional recovery from shame. This was inspired by an emerging line of research suggesting that facilitating an emotion that is incongruent (e.g., anger), as opposed to congruent (e.g., sadness), in its action tendency with the emotional distress presenting (e.g., shame) might better promote emotional outcome. Method: A randomized experimental design was used to directly compare the extent of emotional recovery in participants who underwent one of three emotional sequences. “Attending to shame” was a condition designed to promote continual engagement with feelings of shame at both steps of the 2-step emotional sequence. The other two conditions, “facilitating anger” and “facilitating sadness”, were designed to activate shame in the first step and then to promote either anger or sadness, respectively, at the second step of the sequences. Emotions were conceptualized and identified following Pascual-Leone and Greenberg’s sequential model of emotional processing (2007). The sample consisted of 62 undergraduate students who reported struggling to resolve their feelings of shame in reaction to a past emotional injury by a significant person in their lives. Participants’ shame, sense of resolution, and perceived sense of usefulness for each condition were assessed at post-task. Participants’ defense styles, levels of trust in the offender, aggression, and depressive symptoms were also explored for possible links with emotional processing and outcome. Results: Bootstrapped multiple regression analyses revealed that the facilitating anger sequence was uniquely associated with gains in participants’ sense of direction for resolving distress (B = 4.50 when compared to attending to shame; B = 3.38 when compared to facilitating sadness). Facilitating anger as opposed to shame also reduced participants’ feelings of shame but only in individuals who had less use of immature defense styles (B = 4.79). Facilitating anger and facilitating sadness, compared to attending to shame, both promoted participants’ self-awareness into their own personal struggles (B = 2.95 and B = 1.67, respectively). Discussion: Findings confirmed empirical literature on the sequential model of emotional processing that promoting a different emotion, albeit a negative emotion, in the activation of distress is associated with emotional benefits. Findings further revealed that facilitating anger, as opposed to sadness, was uniquely associated with some aspects of emotional recovery in individuals struggling to resolve their feelings of shame. This may implicate the salubrious effect of promoting an emotion that is incongruent to the presenting emotional distress

Writing to Heal: What Kinds of Emotions Predict Outcome in Expressive Writing?

In the current study, the aim was to explore whether certain types of emotions that emerge in participants’ personal narratives of past traumatic events are associated with subsequent improvement in emotional well-being following expressive writing. The sample was archival data consisting of 255 undergraduate students. Participants’ narrative material was coded for the presence of key emotions. Participants’ psychological well-being was assessed at baseline, and at 17 and 31 days post-intervention. Participants were observed to evidence different key emotional states that were differentially associated with symptom distress. No relationship was observed between expressions of different emotions and participants’ subsequent emotional development. Findings suggest that participants do not always adhere to writing instructions; personal narratives are revealing of symptom distress; and repeated writing, emotional or non-emotional, may enhance emotional well-being in general

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Characterisation of feline renal cortical fibroblast cultures and their transcriptional response to transforming growth factor beta 1

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in geriatric cats, and the most prevalent pathology is chronic tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. The cell type predominantly responsible for the production of extra-cellular matrix in renal fibrosis is the myofibroblast, and fibroblast to myofibroblast differentiation is probably a crucial event. The cytokine TGF-β1 is reportedly the most important regulator of myofibroblastic differentiation in other species. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterise renal fibroblasts from cadaverous kidney tissue of cats with and without CKD, and to investigate the transcriptional response to TGF-β1

Syllables without vowels: Phonetic and phonological evidence from Tashlhiyt Berber

International audienceIt has been proposed that Tashlhiyt is a language which allows any segment,including obstruents, to be a syllable nucleus. The most striking and controversialexamples taken as arguments in favour of this analysis involve series of wordsclaimed to contain only obstruents. This claim is disputed in some recent work,where it is argued that these consonant sequences contain schwas that can besyllable nuclei. This article presents arguments showing that vowelless syllablesdo exist in Tashlhiyt, both at the phonetic and phonological levels. Acoustic,fibrescopic and photoelectroglottographic examination of voiceless words (e.g.[tkkststt]) provide evidence that such items lack syllabic vocalic elements. In addition,two types of phonological data, metrics and a spirantisation process, arepresented to show that in this language schwa is not a segment which can beindependently manipulated by phonological grammar and which can be referredto the syllable structure