1. Emotion in Clinical Psychology
Chapter 15

2. Outline Taxonomy of Emotional Disorders MDD and 3 Theories
Bipolar Disorder and PEP
PTSD and Anxiety Disorders

3. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Emotion Disturbances
Emotional Valence Disturbances
Emotional Intensity / Regulation Disturbances
Disconnections
(Berenbaum et al., 2003)

4. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Predominantly Unpleasant U P U P U P
Normal Level

5. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Predominantly Unpleasant
Deficits in Pleasant Emotions
Joy, Tranquility, Contentment Pride Love
Excesses in Unpleasant Emotions
Distress Emotions
Self-conscious Emotions

6. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Predominantly Pleasant P U P U P U
Normal Level

7. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Predominantly Pleasant
Deficits in Unpleasant Emotions
Fear Guilt Shame
Excesses in Pleasant Emotions
Joy Pride Love Interest/Curiosity

8. Emotional Valence Disturbances
Predominantly Pleasant
Deficits in Pleasant Emotions
Joy, Tranquility, Contentment Pride Love
Excesses in Unpleasant Emotions
Distress Emotions
Self-conscious Emotions
Predominantly Unpleasant
Deficits in Unpleasant Emotions
Fear Guilt Shame
Excesses in Pleasant Emotions
Joy Pride Love Interest/Curiosity

9. Emotional Intensity / Regulation Disturbances
Hyperreactivity
Hyporeactivity U P U P

10. Emotion Disconnections
Affect
Awareness

11. Major Depressive Disorder
Positive Attenuation Hypothesis
Negative Potentiation Hypothesis (Aaron Beck)
Emotion-Context Insensitivity (ECI) Hypothesis (Rottenberg)

12. Positive Attenuation Hypothesis (PAH)
Begins with low levels of positive mood
Weakened responses to positive stimuli
Anhedonia, apathy, fatigue
Less likely to seek out or consume rewards

13. Negative Potentiation Hypothesis (NPH)
Begins with high levels of negative mood
Greater reactivity to negative emotional stimuli
Negative worldview leads people to experience more negative emotions in response to unpleasant stimuli

14. Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI)
Restricted range of positive and negative emotions
Weakened responses to both positive and negative stimuli
Emotions not appropriate for context
Partially supports PAH

15. Research Says! PAH: Depressed v. Control NPH: Depressed v. Control
Less positive responses to rewarding stimuli
Deficits in activation of left frontal lobe
NPH: Depressed v. Control
Greater SCR to negative social scenarios
More negative attributions
BUT, show weakened amygdala responses to fearful faces
BUT, weakened SCR and startle to unexpected noise

16. For ECI, Research Says!
Across sad, amusing and neutral contexts, people with most similar facial expressions and physiological reactions:
Highest depression severity
Depressed for longest period of time
Least likely to recover 6 months later
(Rottenberg, Kasch, et al., 2002)

17. Evidence for ECI Hypothesis
Currently depressed, formerly depressed, healthy controls
Film Clips: Happy, Sad
DV: Subjective feelings

18. Evidence for ECI Hypothesis

19. Evidence for ECI Hypothesis

20. Evidence for ECI Hypothesis
Supports ECI and Positive Attenuation:
Across all clips, lower positive emotions than recovered and controls
Similar sadness across 3 film clips
Against ECI
More negative emotions than recovered and controls
No differences for facial expressions or physiology

21. Positive Emotion Persistence (PEP)
Greater degree of positive emotions
Increases in reward and achievement-oriented emotions
Increased positive emotions across all contexts
Deficiencies in Emotion Regulation
Up-regulate positive emotions
Difficulty down-regulating positive emotions
(Gruber and colleagues)

22. Bipolar Risk
Control
(Gruber, 2011)