Cited by 278Resilience and Mental HealthNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Flexible emotional responsiveness in trait resilience

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Waugh, Christian E., Thompson, Renee J., Gotlib, Ian H.·2011·Emotion

Abstract

Field studies and laboratory experiments have documented that a key component of resilience is emotional flexibility--the ability to respond flexibly to changing emotional circumstances. In the present study we tested the hypotheses that resilient people exhibit emotional flexibility: (a) in response to frequently changing emotional stimuli and (b) across multiple modalities of emotional responding. As participants viewed a series of emotional pictures, we assessed their self-reported affect, facial muscle activity, and startle reflexes. Higher trait resilience predicted more divergent affective and facial responses (corrugator and zygomatic) to positive versus negative pictures. Thus, compared with their low-resilient counterparts, resilient people appear to be able to more flexibly match their emotional responses to the frequently changing emotional stimuli. Moreover, whereas high-trait-resilient participants exhibited divergent startle responses to positive versus negative pictures regardless of the valence of the preceding trial, low-trait-resilient participants did not exhibit divergent startle responses when the preceding picture was negative. High-trait-resilient individuals, therefore, appear to be better able than are their low-resilient counterparts to either switch or maintain their emotional responses depending on whether the emotional context changes. The present findings broaden our understanding of the mechanisms underlying resilience by demonstrating that resilient people are able to flexibly change their affective and physiological responses to match the demands of frequently changing environmental circumstances.

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  • ACT is an appropriate method to reduce stress and depression in students.

    “The results showed that ACT is an appropriate method to reduce stress and depression.[30]”

    From The effect of counseling based on acceptance and commitment therapy on anxiety, depression, and quality of life among female adolescent students (2022) · cites this paper as [30]

    The Method > Procedure describes an emotional-responsiveness task involving pictures and physiological measurements, while the Results > Self-report Affect reports associations with trait resilience. Searches for ACT and acceptance and commitment therapy found no passage evaluating whether ACT reduces stress or depression; the cited paper therefore does not verify the claim. (LLM, conf=0.75)

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  1. Block J Block JH Collings WA The role of ego-control and ego-resiliency in the origination of behavior The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology 1980 Vol. 13 Hillsdale, NJ Erlbaum 39 101

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Authors
Waugh, C. E., Thompson, R. J., & Gotlib, I. H.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Venue
Emotion
Published
2011
Volume
11
Issue
5
Pages
1059-1067
ISSN
  • 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
  • 1931-1516
OpenAlex
W2085483029
Cited by
278
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 6
FWCI
8.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Emotion (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH74849)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Resilience and Mental Health
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
trait resilience, emotional flexibility, emotional responsiveness, facial muscle activity, corrugator supercilii, zygomaticus, startle response, emotional responses, positive and negative valence
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Cues, Electromyography, Emotions, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Male, Psychological Tests, Surveys and Questionnaires, Mental Recall, Reflex, Startle, Resilience, Psychological, Emotional Intelligence

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