More Brain Points

 Emotional Reactivity and Daily Life

 

Our emotions play a large role in our daily lives. When we see something we don’t like, it affects our mood and changes outlook on things. When we see something we do like, we get this positive sensation within us that we use to our advantage. Our emotional reactivity to stimuli can be affected by things that occur within our daily lifestyle as well as within us psychologically.

 

In the study, “Abnormal emotional reactivity in depression: Contrasting theoretical models using neurophysiological data”, Kalylin E. Hill and colleagues attempted to view the correlation between negatively-valanced stimuli in those that are diagnosed with depression. This was done by recording event related potentials (ERPs) in the brain while completing a passive viewing emotional task. Before the emotional task, participants had to complete a depression anxiety stress scale (DASS-21) which is a 21-item Likert self-reporting scale that “captures symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress over the past week with 7 items per subscale” (Hill 2019).  Conclusions from the study showed that there was a reduced emotional activity in those diagnosed with depression.

 

In the study “Negative emotional reactivity moderates the relations between family cohesion and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescence” Jill A. Rabinowitz and colleagues sought out to view the relationship between a youth’s negative emotional reactivity and family cohesion. Family cohesion is defined as the emotional bonding that family members share between one another. Results from the study indicated that adolescents that had a higher negative emotional reactivity, had lower family cohesion causing greater internalizing and externalizing symptoms. 

 

Looking at both studies, participants who had a negative emotional reactivity were correlated with other aspects of their life also being affected negatively. In the study by Hill, there were theoretical models of aberrant emotional experience in those affected by depression had been shown before, but it was unaware if these models exclusively applied to depression, or if other general negative effects such as anxiety may also play a role in this.  In addition to this, their reduced emotional reactivity was seen to be a direct result of their depression. Demonstrating how suffering from this disorder affects functioning in daily life. In the Rabinowitz study, individuals who had negative emotional reactivity had a lower family cohesion. Meaning that their negative emotional reactivity also played a role in how they interact with others in their daily life. This is beneficial to know since moving forward we are able to see how emotional reactivity can be influenced by a multitude of factors including mental illness and personal relationships, and this may allow us to adapt mechanisms that allow us to reform this way of thinking.