Autonomic arousal feedback and emotional experience: evidence from the spinal cord injured.

We interviewed spinal-cord-injured, other handicapped, and nonhandicapped subjects to investigate the relation between the perception of autonomic arousal and experienced emotion. The three groups differed significantly on only one measure of affect intensity, with the spinal-cord-injured subjects more often reporting stronger fear in their lives now compared with the past. In addition, spinal-cord-injured subjects often described intense emotional experiences. Spinal-cord-injured subjects who differed in their level of autonomic feedback differed in intensity on several measures. Subjects with greater autonomic feedback tended to report more intense levels of negative emotions. The findings indicate that the perception of autonomic arousal may not be necessary for emotional experience. There were weak trends in our data, however, suggesting that the perception of arousal may enhance the experience of emotional intensity. The subjective well-being reports of the handicapped groups were comparable to those of nonhandicapped subjects, indicating successful coping with their disability.

[1]  Andrew Ortony,et al.  The Cognitive Structure of Emotions , 1988 .

[2]  D. Matsumoto.  The role of facial response in the experience of emotion: more methodological problems and a meta-analysis. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  R. Larsen,et al.  Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review , 1987 .

[4]  W. Cannon.  The James-Lange theory of emotions: a critical examination and an alternative theory. By Walter B. Cannon, 1927. , 1927, The American journal of psychology.

[5]  P. H. Blaney.  Affect and memory: a review. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.

[6]  N. C. Weed.  Affect intensity and controlled emotional stimuli , 1986 .

[7]  D. Watson,et al.  Toward a consensual structure of mood. , 1985, Psychological bulletin.

[8]  Ed Diener,et al.  An evaluation of subjective well-being measures , 1985 .

[9]  Ed Diener,et al.  Age and sex effects for emotional intensity. , 1985 .

[10]  R. Larsen,et al.  The Satisfaction with Life Scale , 1985, Journal of personality assessment.

[11]  R. Larsen,et al.  A multitrait-multimethod examination of affect structure: hedonic level and emotional intensity , 1985 .

[12]  Kelly G. Shaver,et al.  The attribution of blame : causality, responsibility, and blameworthiness , 1985 .

[13]  R. Stensman,et al.  Severely mobility-disabled people assess the quality of their lives. , 2020, Scandinavian journal of rehabilitation medicine.

[14]  E. Diener,et al.  The independence of positive and negative affect. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  P. Shaver.  Emotions, Relationships, and Health , 1984 .

[16]  J. Laird.  The real role of facial response in the experience of emotion: A reply to Tourangeau and Ellsworth, and others. , 1984 .

[17]  E. Diener,et al.  Subjective well-being. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[18]  Ira J. Roseman.  Cognitive determinants of emotion: A structural theory. , 1984 .

[19]  Ross Buck,et al.  The communication of emotion , 1984 .

[20]  R. Larsen,et al.  Theory and measurement of affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic. , 1984 .

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

[22]  R. Reisenzein.  The Schachter theory of emotion: two decades later. , 1983, Psychological bulletin.

[23]  P. Ekman.  Emotion in the human face , 1982 .

[24]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.

[25]  R. Plutchik.  Emotion, a psychoevolutionary synthesis , 1980 .

[26]  Christina Maslach,et al.  Negative emotional biasing of unexplained arousal. , 1979 .

[27]  Philip G. Zimbardo,et al.  Affective consequences of inadequately explained physiological arousal. , 1979 .

[28]  G. Higgins,et al.  Sexual response in spinal cord injured adults: A review of the literature , 1979, Archives of sexual behavior.

[29]  P. Brickman,et al.  Lottery winners and accident victims: is happiness relative? , 1978, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  J. Cull,et al.  Physical medicine and rehabilitation approaches in spinal cord injury , 1977 .

[31]  Ross Buck,et al.  A TEST OF NONVERBAL RECEIVING ABILITY: PRELIMINARY STUDIES , 1976 .

[32]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality , 1976 .

[33]  Karl L. Hakmiller,et al.  Some Effects of Lesion Level, and Emotional Cues on Affective Expression in Spinal Cord Patients , 1975, Psychological reports.

[34]  L. Levi,et al.  Emotions, their parameters and measurement , 1975 .

[35]  C. Izard.  The face of emotion , 1971 .

[36]  J. Stern,et al.  Peripheral physiological variables and emotion: the James-Lange theory revisited. , 1970, Psychological bulletin.

[37]  A. Parducci.  The relativism of absolute judgements. , 1968, Scientific American.

[38]  G W Hohmann,et al.  Some effects of spinal cord lesions on experienced emotional feelings. , 1966, Psychophysiology.

[39]  Marvin K. Opler,et al.  Reports on happiness , 1965 .

[40]  J. Singer,et al.  Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. , 1962, Psychological review.

[41]  M. L. Reymert,et al.  Feelings and Emotions: the Wittenberg Symposium , 1929, Nature.

[42]  F. Mott.  ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY , 1923 .

[43]  C. L. Dana.  THE ANATOMIC SEAT OF THE EMOTIONS: A DISCUSSION OF THE JAMES-LAN GE THEORY , 1921 .

[44]  W. James.  The principles of psychology , 1983 .