The paper gives a theoretical explanation and empirical verification of a conceptual emotion-regulating model, developed in the theoretical methodological context of cultural-active paradigm. A universal hypothesis concerning emotion regulation as a system including psychological and physiological levels has been verified empirically. The psychological level may be subdivided on motivational thinking level and operational-technical ones, ruled by such psychological mechanisms as reflection and symbolical mediation. It has been figured out that motivational peculiarities determine the manifestation of other analyzed components of the system of emotion regulation. This is true not only for healthy patients, but also for patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP). The significance of reflection and symbolical mediation in the system of cultural-active paradigm and emotion regulation has been determined. It has been proved that emotion regulation among patients with MVP differs from that of healthy people, highlighted by a very strong conflict of goal-achieving and fail-avoiding motives, lack of personal reflection and distortion of symbolical mediation, and very limited emotion-regulative resources. It has been shown that patients with MVP differ from the control group, suffering from far more strong emotional stress. It distributes an overall negative impact, reducing the ability to use emotion-regulating resource in emotionally meaningful situations effectively.
Sections: Methodology;
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Keywords: higher mental functions (APF); emotion regulation; emotion regulation strategies; mitral valve prolapse; emotional stress; cultural active paradigm; emotion expression suppression;
Available Online 30.08.2016
Table 1. Medium group indexes of the number of chosen situations (Me±SD)
Number of chosen situations |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
All chosen situations |
7.90±0.67 |
5.94±1.01 |
p<0.05 |
With obstacles |
4.60±1.56 |
2.41±0.97 |
p<0.001 |
With blaming |
3.30±0.81 |
3.53±1.11 |
- |
Table 2. Medium group amount of emotional descriptors (Me±SD)
Number of descriptors in one situation |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
Situation in general |
8.54±1.49 |
7.08±1.35 |
p<0.05 |
Single obstacle situation |
6.83±1.66 |
6.81±2.20 |
- |
Single blaming situation |
10.04±2.42* |
6.97±1.97 |
p<0.05 |
Note. * - the differences are true for the number of descriptors in single blaming situation compared to the number of emotions in single obstacle situation (p<0.05).
Table 3. Emotion regulation strategies in the situation of a spontaneous reaction. Frequency analysis (%)
№ |
Emotion regulation (ER) strategy |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
|||
I. Internal ER strategies |
|||||||
1 |
Non-differentiable cognitive changes |
25.2±1.13 |
10.7±1.16 |
p<0.001 |
|||
2 |
Ruminations and catastrophization |
16.1±2.17 |
10.4±1.77 |
p<0.05 |
|||
3 |
Comparison and depreciation |
26.6±2.23 |
24.2±2.65 |
- |
|||
4 |
Positive review |
4.7±0.43 |
12.1±1.46 |
p<0.001 |
|||
5 |
New senses actualization |
23.8±3.67 |
34.3±3.39 |
p<0.05 |
|||
6 |
Worries transformation via humor and metaphor |
3.6±0.03 |
8.3±1.6 |
p<0.001 |
|||
Total |
100 |
100 |
- |
||||
II. External ER strategies |
|||||||
1 |
Direct expression |
27.3±2.68 |
25.6±2.04 |
- |
|||
2 |
Emotion expression suppression |
29.2±1.75 |
20.5±1.9 |
p<0.05 |
|||
3 |
Conflict-communicative reaction |
31.2±2.66 |
28.9±2.33 |
- |
|||
4 |
Subject-subject interactive transformations |
12.3±1.96 |
25.0±1.58 |
p<0.001 |
|||
Total |
100 |
100 |
- |
||||
Table 4.
№ |
Emotion regulation (ER) strategy |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
|||
I. Internal ER strategies |
|||||||
1 |
Non-differentiable cognitive changes |
7.3±1.85 |
6.1±1.45 |
- |
|||
2 |
Ruminations and catastrophization |
18.0±3.65 |
7.3±0.85 |
p<0.001 |
|||
3 |
Comparison and depreciation |
28.7±2.78 |
14.6±1.94 |
p<0.05 |
|||
4 |
Positive review |
5.1±1.78 |
19.3±3.37 |
p<0.001 |
|||
5 |
New senses actualization |
32.3±4.98 |
36.4±3.99 |
- |
|||
6 |
Worries transformation via humor and metaphor |
8.6±3.04 |
16.3±2.25 |
p<0.05 |
|||
Total |
100 |
100 |
100 |
||||
II. External ER strategies |
|||||||
1 |
Direct expression |
18.5±1.75 |
12.6±2.42 |
p<0.05 |
|||
2 |
Emotion expression suppression |
23.2±2.59 |
18.4±1.9 |
p<0.05 |
|||
3 |
Conflict-communicative reaction |
26.3±1.23 |
27.0±1.79 |
p<0.05 |
|||
4 |
Subject-subject interactive transformations |
32.0±3.61 |
42.0±3.44 |
p<0.05 |
|||
Total |
100 |
100 |
100 |
||||
Table 5. Medium RA indexes among patients with MVP and healthy patients before and after the experiment (points, M±SD).
Reactive anxiety |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
RA before the experiment |
43.69±4.73 |
37.70±1.72 |
p<0.001 |
RA after the experiment |
45.03±1.06 |
37.81±3.27 |
p<0.001 |
Δ RA |
1.34±0.52 |
0.11±0.09 |
- |
Table 6. Medium non-verbal activity indexes among patients with MVP and healthy patients during the experiment (absolute values, M±SD)
Non-verbal activity indexes |
MVP, n=134 |
Healthy people, n=73 |
Accuracy |
Gestures |
20.0±3.1* |
14.1±2.6 |
p<0.05 |
Posture changes |
7.9±2.3 |
5.8±0.9 |
- |
Mimics |
14.6±2.7 |
15.2±2.2 |
- |
Voice tone changes |
10.2±1.9 * |
5.2±1.1 |
p<0.001 |
Total point |
52.7±4.3 * |
40.3±5.7 |
p<0.05 |
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