Emotional suppression: physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior.

This study examined the effects of emotional suppression, a form of emotion regulation defined as the conscious inhibition of emotional expressive behavior while emotionally aroused. Ss (43 men and 42 women) watched a short disgust-eliciting film while their behavioral, physiological, and subjective responses were recorded. Ss were told to watch the film (no suppression condition) or to watch the film while behaving "in such a way that a person watching you would not know you were feeling anything" (suppression condition). Suppression reduced expressive behavior and produced a mixed physiological state characterized by decreased somatic activity and decreased heart rate, along with increased blinking and indications of increased sympathetic nervous system activity (in other cardiovascular measures and in electrodermal responding). Suppression had no impact on the subjective experience of emotion. There were no sex differences in the effects of suppression.

[1]  C. Darwin.  The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals , .

[2]  J. Stainer,et al.  The Emotions , 1922, Nature.

[3]  Harold E. Jones,et al.  The galvanic skin reflex as related to overt emotional expression. , 1935 .

[4]  S. King,et al.  The Direction of Anger During a Laboratory Stress‐Inducing Situation , 1954, Psychosomatic medicine.

[5]  H. E. Jones.  The Longitudinal Method in the Study of Personality , 1960, Personality Development in Children.

[6]  P. Young,et al.  Emotion and personality , 1963 .

[7]  S. Tomkins,et al.  Affect Imagery Consciousness: The Positive Affects , 1963 .

[8]  E. Gellhorn.  MOTION AND EMOTION: THE ROLE OF PROPRIOCEPTION IN THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF THE EMOTIONS. , 1964, Psychological review.

[9]  R. Zajonc.  SOCIAL FACILITATION. , 1965, Science.

[10]  P. Ekman,et al.  Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Displays of Emotion , 1969, Science.

[11]  W. Mace,et al.  The effect of laughter on evaluation of a slapstick movie. , 1970, Journal of personality.

[12]  J. R. Marshall.  The expression of feelings. , 1972, Archives of general psychiatry.

[13]  W. Schull,et al.  Socio‐Ecological Stress, Suppressed Hostility, Skin Color, and Black‐White Male Blood Pressure: Detroit , 1973, Psychosomatic medicine.

[14]  R. Buck,et al.  Sex, personality, and physiological variables in the communication of affect via facial expression. , 1974, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  J. Laird.  Self-attribution of emotion: the effects of expressive behavior on the quality of emotional experience. , 1974, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  R. Vaughan,et al.  Effects of being observed on expressive, subjective, and physiological responses to painful stimuli. , 1976, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[17]  Judith A. Hall,et al.  Encoding and decoding of spontaneous and posed facial expressions. , 1976 .

[18]  J. Lanzetta,et al.  Effects of nonverbal dissimulation on emotional experience and autonomic arousal. , 1976, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  J. Lanzetta,et al.  Effects of the expression of pain on autonomic and pain tolerance responses to subject-controlled pain. , 1977, Psychophysiology.

[20]  J. Laird,et al.  Cross-modality consistencies in individual differences in self-attribution. , 1977, Journal of personality.

[21]  Judith A. Hall.  Gender Effects in Decoding Nonverbal Cues , 1978 .

[22]  C. Notarius,et al.  Expressive tendencies and physiological response to stress. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  R. Comer,et al.  Induced-compliance attitude change: Once more with feeling , 1979 .

[24]  P. Ellsworth,et al.  The role of facial response in the experience of emotion. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[25]  A. Wiens,et al.  Encoding-decoding of nonverbal emotional messages: Sex differences in spontaneous and enacted expressions , 1980 .

[26]  P. Ekman,et al.  Facial signs of emotional experience. , 1980 .

[27]  J. Laird,et al.  Positive and reverse placebo effects as a function of differences in cues used in self-perception. , 1980 .

[28]  R. Plutchik.  A GENERAL PSYCHOEVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF EMOTION , 1980 .

[29]  D. Fowles,et al.  The three arousal model: implications of gray's two-factor learning theory for heart rate, electrodermal activity, and psychopathy. , 1980, Psychophysiology.

[30]  R. Buck.  Nonverbal behavior and the theory of emotion: the facial feedback hypothesis. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[31]  P. Obrist.  Cardiovascular Psychophysiology: A Perspective , 1981 .

[32]  T. Dembroski,et al.  Effects of types of challenge on pressor and heart rate responses in type A and B women. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[33]  R. Levenson,et al.  Individual differences in ability to control heart rate: personality, strategy, physiological and other variables. , 1981, Psychophysiology.

[34]  R. Shuntich,et al.  Encoding and decoding of nonverbal behavior through facial expressions , 1981 .

[35]  M. Zuckerman,et al.  Facial, autonomic, and subjective components of emotion: the facial feedback hypothesis versus externalizer-internalizer distinction. , 1981, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  E. Diamond.  The role of anger and hostility in essential hypertension and coronary heart disease. , 1982, Psychological bulletin.

[37]  Reuben M. Baron,et al.  Temporal organization of spontaneous emotional expression: A segmentation analysis. , 1982 .

[38]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Social presence, facial feedback, and emotion. , 1982, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

[39]  P. Ekman.  What emotion categories or dimensions can observers judge from facial behavior , 1982 .

[40]  D. Holmes,et al.  Voluntary expressive changes and emotion. , 1982 .

[41]  P. Ekman,et al.  Autonomic nervous system activity distinguishes among emotions. , 1983, Science.

[42]  L. Gorkin,et al.  Young adults at risk for hypertension: effects of family history and anger management in determining responses to interpersonal conflict. , 1983, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[43]  S. Manuck,et al.  Acute psychophysiologic reactivity and risk of cardiovascular disease: a review and methodologic critique. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[44]  J. Stern,et al.  The endogenous eyeblink. , 1984, Psychophysiology.

[45]  C. Tavris.  On the wisdom of counting to ten: Personal and social dangers of anger expression. , 1984 .

[46]  P. Ekman,et al.  Is the startle reaction an emotion? , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[47]  Bruce Bowe.  The Face of Emotion , 1985 .

[48]  Behavioral inhibition and electrodermal activity during deception. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[49]  J. Gottman,et al.  Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction. , 1985, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[50]  T. Dembroski,et al.  Components of type A, hostility, and anger-in: further relationships to angiographic findings. , 1985, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[51]  R. B. Hupka,et al.  The facial feedback hypothesis: Methodological concerns and new supporting evidence , 1985 .

[52]  J. Pennebaker,et al.  Confronting a traumatic event: toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. , 1986, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[53]  L. Temoshok.  Personality, coping style, emotion and cancer: towards an integrative model. , 1987, Cancer surveys.

[54]  T. McCanne,et al.  Emotional responding following experimental manipulation of facial electromyographic activity. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[55]  J. Pennebaker,et al.  The psychophysiology of confession: linking inhibitory and psychosomatic processes. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[56]  R. Levenson,et al.  Greater reinforcement from alcohol for those at risk: parental risk, personality risk, and sex. , 1987, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[57]  A. Fallon,et al.  A perspective on disgust. , 1987, Psychological review.

[58]  F. Strack,et al.  Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: a nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[59]  R. Levenson.  Emotion and the autonomic nervous system: A prospectus for research on autonomic specificity. , 1988 .

[60]  J. Pennebaker,et al.  Disclosure of traumas and immune function: health implications for psychotherapy. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[61]  J. Kiecolt-Glaser,et al.  Confronting traumatic experience and immunocompetence: a reply to Neale, Cox, Valdimarsdottir, and Stone. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[62]  John M. Gottman,et al.  The social psychophysiology of marriage. , 1988 .

[63]  P. Ekman,et al.  Smiles when lying. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  J. Laird,et al.  Emotion-Specific Effects of Facial Expressions and Postures on Emotional Experience , 1989 .

[65]  J. Gross.  Emotional expression in cancer onset and progression. , 1989, Social science & medicine.

[66]  C. J. Huberty,et al.  Multivariate analysis versus multiple univariate analyses. , 1989 .

[67]  K. Matthews,et al.  Relations between anger expression and cardiovascular reactivity: reconciling inconsistent findings through a matching hypothesis. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[68]  J. Lanzetta,et al.  The effects of facial control and facial mimicry on subjective reactions to comedy routines , 1989 .

[69]  P. Ekman,et al.  Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. , 1990, Psychophysiology.

[70]  S. Freud,et al.  Civilization and Its Discontents , 2018, Princeton Readings in Political Thought.

[71]  D M Wegner,et al.  The suppression of exciting thoughts. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[72]  John A. Stern,et al.  The ocular system. , 1990 .

[73]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Principles of psychophysiology : physical, social, and inferential elements , 1990 .

[74]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Rudimentary physiological effects of mere observation. , 1990, Psychophysiology.

[75]  P. Ekman,et al.  Emotion, physiology, and expression in old age. , 1991, Psychology and aging.

[76]  P. Lang,et al.  Relationship between facial expressiveness and sympathetic activation in emotion: a critical review, with emphasis on modeling underlying mechanisms and individual differences. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[77]  J. Gottman,et al.  Marital processes predictive of later dissolution: behavior, physiology, and health. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[78]  R. Levenson,et al.  Empathy: a physiological substrate. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[79]  P. Ekman,et al.  Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of west Sumatra. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[80]  R. Levenson.  Autonomic Nervous System Differences among Emotions , 1992 .

[81]  H. Collier.  PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF MEDICINE. , 1931 .