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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Dept. of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2010.
A study examined the role of interest-taking in regulating emotions and reducing the influence of incidental emotions when making judgments. To this end, 142 students participated in a single laboratory session. Participants were first led to believe that a peer had rejected them. They were then asked to write for seven minutes. The content of the writing depended on assignment to one of three conditions. In a suppression condition, they were asked to suppress their feelings and instead focus their attention to neutral events that had occurred earlier in the day. In a second expression condition participants were asked to express thoughts and feelings, but were given no more instructions on how to do so. A final interest-taking condition asked that participants not only express, but also take an interest or curiosity in their emotional experiences while doing so. Affect (specifically, anger, prosocial affect, and internalization of rejection) was measured immediately after the writing and at the end of the study. Additionally, participants rated audiotaped speeches in which the individual who rejected them, and an unrelated individual, engaged in moderate levels of self-disclosure. Results showed that self-reported interest differentiated the interested-expression condition from the other two; openness differentiated the two expression conditions from suppression, and private self-consciousness was similar in all conditions. Analyses predicting self-reported affect showed no effects of condition immediately following the writing procedure, although individuals in the interest condition showed lower implicit aggression immediately after writing. However, at the end of the study, interest-taking individuals reported less anger, more prosocial affect, and less internalization of rejection as compared to the other groups. Expressing participants reported similar affect to those who suppressed, except in the case of reporting higher prosocial affect. Results on judgment showed that individuals in all conditions judged the rejecting target similarly; but interested individuals were kinder to unrelated targets. This indicated that, for participants in the interest group, emotions were not carried over to the new target. Mediation analyses showed that expected rejection and implicit aggression were responsible for the effects of condition on judgment. Moderation analyses failed to show an effect with trait autonomy, although individuals who were insecurely attached benefited more from taking an interest. Implications for psychotherapy and more broadly for decision-making are discussed, and future directions are suggested.