Effects of modifying the interpretation of emotional ambiguity

Abstract

People vary in how they perceive emotionally ambiguous events: For example, anxious individuals are particularly likely to interpret emotional ambiguity in a threatening way. Experimental studies have shown that such processing styles are malleable, and when modified can lead to corresponding changes in emotional reactivity. The methods used to modify processing and to assess subsequent changes in emotional reactivity are described and theoretical accounts of the mechanism underlying such changes are discussed. Recent application of related methods to modifying clinical problems demonstrates their utility, but beyond such practical applications, the approach provides new ways of probing the nature of the relationship between cognition and emotion.

Keywords:

• Emotion
• Interpretation
• Modification

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the many collaborators who have provided ideas and much of the work reported here, but of course especial thanks are due to Michael Eysenck, who began the whole thing.