Submitter and Co-author information

Stephanie Sarah Nardone, University of WindsorFollow

Type of Proposal

Oral presentation

Streaming Media

Faculty

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Antonio Pascual-Leone

Proposal

Emotional involvement refers to the willing activation of feeling, whereas emotional processing describes one’s personal understanding of an activated emotion, including its underlying unmet need (Greenberg, 2010; Greenberg & Safran, 1984, 1987). It appears that emotional involvement and processing both permit emotional transformation, yet there is a lack of research examining the association between emotional involvement and processing. The present study seeks to clarify the temporal relationship between these two factors through a correlational design and observational analysis of an archival dataset involving a two-chair intervention for self-criticism (Kramer & Pascual-Leone, 2015). After enacting their inner critic, participants (N = 39) completed two stages: (1) an initial reaction to their self-criticism and (2) a subsequent reaction to their self-criticism following a written priming task intended to facilitate the verbalization of an unmet existential need. Changes in the level of emotional involvement expressed across these two stages depended on whether participants verbalized an unmet need during their subsequent reaction to their self-criticism. Participants who verbalized an unmet need expressed greater levels of emotional involvement during the initial reaction to self-criticism than those who did not. These results suggest that elevated levels of emotional involvement precede emotional processing. Thus, before encouraging clients to engage in emotional processing, therapists should ensure that clients have expressed sufficient levels of emotional involvement.

Start Date

31-3-2017 10:30 AM

End Date

31-3-2017 11:50 AM

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Mar 31st, 10:30 AM Mar 31st, 11:50 AM

Clarifying emotional transformation: Temporal patterns of emotional involvement and emotional processing

Emotional involvement refers to the willing activation of feeling, whereas emotional processing describes one’s personal understanding of an activated emotion, including its underlying unmet need (Greenberg, 2010; Greenberg & Safran, 1984, 1987). It appears that emotional involvement and processing both permit emotional transformation, yet there is a lack of research examining the association between emotional involvement and processing. The present study seeks to clarify the temporal relationship between these two factors through a correlational design and observational analysis of an archival dataset involving a two-chair intervention for self-criticism (Kramer & Pascual-Leone, 2015). After enacting their inner critic, participants (N = 39) completed two stages: (1) an initial reaction to their self-criticism and (2) a subsequent reaction to their self-criticism following a written priming task intended to facilitate the verbalization of an unmet existential need. Changes in the level of emotional involvement expressed across these two stages depended on whether participants verbalized an unmet need during their subsequent reaction to their self-criticism. Participants who verbalized an unmet need expressed greater levels of emotional involvement during the initial reaction to self-criticism than those who did not. These results suggest that elevated levels of emotional involvement precede emotional processing. Thus, before encouraging clients to engage in emotional processing, therapists should ensure that clients have expressed sufficient levels of emotional involvement.