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MEASURING THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EMOTION AND EMOTION REGULATION—TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Author(s) -
Fox Nathan A.,
Kirwan Michael,
ReebSutherland Bethany
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
monographs of the society for research in child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.618
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1540-5834
pISSN - 0037-976X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5834.2011.00668.x
Subject(s) - citation , psychology , cognitive science , library science , computer science
The study of emotion has an intimate relationship to the measurement of physiological activity. The definition of an emotion has been debated for some time in the psychological literature (e.g., Ekman & Davidson, 1994). Ekman (Ekman 1992; Ekman & Davidson, 1994) defined emotion as a psychological state that has a defined and often rapid onset, a defined and usually brief duration, and a set of defined changes in facial muscle activity. Emotions have been described with physiological terms, and theories of emotion incorporate physiological change. For example, in Ekman’s definition of emotion, he argues that certain emotions have distinct patterns of autonomic activity and consequently that different emotion states may be the result of autonomic appraisal (often with little conscious awareness). Thus, measurement of physiological activity during the expression and experience of emotion has been the goal of a good deal of psychological research. Finally, there has been a good deal of discussion regarding a definition of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation may best be viewed as the modulation of behaviors that underlie a present emotion state. In this chapter, we discuss one central area for the use of physiological measurement in the study of emotion: the importance of temporal dynamics in measuring physiology and emotion. Prior to that discussion, we present five desiderata that are important to consider when studying psychophysiology in general, and emotion and psychophysiology in particular, from a developmental perspective. For more in-depth discussions of the issues in measurement of emotion, interested readers are referred to important chapters by Davidson (1994b) and our own work (Fox, Schmidt, Henderson, & Marshall, 2006; Schmidt & Fox, 1998a), as well as edited volumes such as that by Schmidt and Segalowitz (2008).