From knowledge to differentiation: Increasing emotion knowledge through an intervention increases negative emotion differentiation

Evgeniya Vedernikova*, Peter Kuppens, Yasemin Erbaş

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Labeling emotions with a high degree of granularity appears to be beneficial for well-being. However, there are individual differences in the level of emotion differentiation, and some individuals do not appear to differentiate much between different emotions. Low differentiation is associated with maladaptive outcomes, therefore such individuals might benefit from interventions that can increase their level of emotion differentiation. To this end, we tested the effects of an emotion knowledge intervention on the level of emotion differentiation. One hundred and twenty participants were assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. Emotion differentiation was assessed with a Scenario Rating Task before and after the intervention, and at follow-up. As predicted, negative emotion differentiation increased significantly after the emotion knowledge intervention, and this increase was not observed in the control group. Positive emotion differentiation also increased slightly; however, it did not reach significance level. This finding suggests that an emotion knowledge intervention might be beneficial for increasing negative emotion differentiation and may have implications for the clinical context.
Original languageEnglish
Article number703757
Number of pages11
JournalFrontiers in Psychology
Volume12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • ATTENTION
  • CHILDREN
  • COMPETENCE
  • CULTURAL-DIFFERENCES
  • EXPERIENCE
  • INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES
  • INTELLIGENCE
  • PERSONALITY
  • POSITIVE EMOTIONS
  • RESILIENCE
  • emotion
  • emotion components
  • emotion differentiation
  • emotion intervention
  • emotion knowledge
  • emotional granularity

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