DIFERENCIAÇÃO, REGULAÇÃO E EXPRESSÃO EMOCIONAL - IMPORTÂNCIA E EVOLUÇÃO NO PROCESSO TERAPÊUTICO

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Emotional processes in psychological adjustment and disorder : their characteristics and evolution during the therapeutic process

Publication . Machado Vaz, Filipa; Vasco, António Branco, 1955-; Greenberg, Leslie S.

The purpose of this dissertation was to study emotions and each emotional process namely emotional attention, emotion differentiation, emotion regulation, emotion intensity and emotion expression, the differences between clinical and non-clinical samples and the impact of each emotional process in psychopathology and in psychotherapy. Five studies were conducted. For the first study, we aimed to develop a global evaluation battery that allow us to have an integrative evaluation of all processes underlying emotions, in a Portuguese sample, namely emotional attention, emotion differentiation, emotion intensity, emotion regulation and emotion expression. Because there were already measures validated for Portuguese population that evaluated emotional attention, emotion differentiation and emotion regulation, in our first study we aimed to validate measures of emotion intensity (Short Affect Intensity Scale; Geuens & De Pelsmacker, 2002), emotion expression (Emotion Expressivity Scale; Kring, Smith, & Neale, 1994) and difficulties in emotion regulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; Gratz & Roemer, 2004). Our results replicated, in a large Portuguese adult sample, the factor structure that underlies the original versions of these three measures. So, with this first study, we gather several instruments in a global evaluation battery that enables us to understand each emotional process necessary for evaluate the complexity of emotions, in a Portuguese sample, which allowed us to proceed to the next studies. For the second study our main goals were to determine whether patients present one or more deficits in each emotional process and to investigate the association between these processes within psychopathology. The clinical sample presented high scores on unpleasant affect in the moment, deficits in several emotional processes, predominantly in emotion differentiation and regulation. Significant and important associations between emotional processes were also found within patients with psychopathology. In the third study, our main purposes wereas to investigate the relationship between psychopathology and emotional attention, emotion differentiation, emotion regulation, emotion intensity and emotion expression and to evaluate differences in these abilities across patients with different types of psychopathologies. Our findings show that the emotion felt, difficulty identifying and describing feelings and difficulties in emotion regulation are significantly and positive correlated with symptoms of psychopathology. Moreover, patients with personality disorders differ significantly in their emotional processing abilities, such as emotion differentiation, intensity and regulation, compared to patients with major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder or both. Thus, disturbances in emotional experience and processes play different roles across different types of psychopathologies. This study allows the comprehension of the impact of emotional processes for each form of psychopathology. In the fourth study, our main purpose was to investigate differences in emotional processes between a non-clinical sample and patients with different types of psychopathology. Our results showed, in the clinical sample, significant lower scores on Differentiation, Range and experiencing Positive Intensity and significant higher scores on Non-Acceptance of Emotional Responses, Difficulties Engaging in Goal-Directed Behavior and Limited Access to Emotion Regulation Strategies when compared to the non-clinical sample. In the fifth study, we investigated the differences in each emotional process for patients attending psychotherapy sessions in different Paradigmatic Complementary Metamodel (PCM) phases. Our results show that there is a decrease of unpleasant emotions felt and an increase of patients’ self-perceived abilities to differentiate and to express emotions along therapy. Implications of the results for each study are discussed for clinical practice and for future investigations.

2018Tese de doutoramento

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Entidade financiadora

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Número da atribuição

SFRH/BD/41428/2007