Psychophysiological Responses to Emotion Priming

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Varma, Ashima
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

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Psychological constructionist theories such as the Theory of Constructed Emotions (TCE; Barrett, 2014), suggest that emotions are a constructed phenomenon dependent upon more basic factors: core affect and concept knowledge. I test this view by manipulating both core affect and accessibility of concept knowledge and examining subsequent emotion experiences. Importantly, I draw on both behavioral and physiological stress responses of challenged and threatened states to examine cardiovascular reactivity and recovery. While gathering cardiac performance data, participants’ (N=34) physiological states were manipulated to a highly negative and activated state through the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993). Prior to the TSST, individuals were primed with an emotion concept (e.g., anger, embarrassment). Behavioral measures, as predicted, showed that participants in the anger condition made more external attributions. Physiological results, although not significant, showed beginning evidence of difference in cardiac performance dependent upon concept prime. These findings indicate that, as per the TCE, language can impact subjective experiences of emotion. This has important implications in the context of psychological illnesses related to emotion, such as anxiety disorders, as well as resiliency and recovery from general stress.

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