The self-control of emotional reactions to a stressful film.

The control of emotion—its reduction and enhancement—is a central theme m personahty and m psychopathology, but there has been relatively little empirical research on the problem One senes of experiments emanatmg from tins laboratory (e.g, Speisman, Lazarus, Mordkoff, & Davison, 1964, Lazarus & Alfert, 1964; Lazarus, Opton, Nomikos, & Rankm, 1965, Folkms, Lawson, Opton, & Lazarus, 1968) has focussed on the way emotional reactions can be mampulated by altermg the person's appraisal of a potentially stressful film event. Two features of this and related research limit somewhat the extent to which it can serve as a laboratory analogue of the control of emotion m real life. First, most existmg theory and research have been directed at the way people reduce or inhibit painful emotions or psychological stress reactions. However, there are times when the reduction of emotion may have undersirable consequences, either for the mdividual (see Janis, 1958) or for the society As to societal harms, the human capacity to achieve detachment from a disturbmg event made it easier for Germans to ignore, or to tolerate without protest, knowledge of the Nazi treatment of European Jewry durmg World War II. Opton (1971) has recently presented mterview data indicatmg that large numbers of Americans have done the same wi& respect to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam Thus, while being one of the chief means by which mdividuals cope with potentially stressful inputs, emotional detachment may sometimes lead to negative personal and social consequences