Reference

Glossary

122 · Glossary

The glossary defines the terms that recur in the research notes, the advice library and the evidence ledger. Each term is classified by kind (empirical, theoretical, clinical, technical, artistic or historical), and definitions link to the notes that use them and to the sources behind them.

Definitions describe the meaning a term has in current research. Where the field has not settled on one meaning, the entry says so and states how the term is used on this site.

A

Abreaction

Historical

Abreakce

The discharge of emotion attached to a recalled distressing memory, as described by Breuer and Freud in their cathartic method. They reported that symptoms eased after abreaction, but the relief was often temporary, and Freud later abandoned the method. The term survives mainly as a historical reference point for the idea that expressing an emotion empties it.

Sources Breuer (1895)

Acceptance

Clinical

Přijetí

In emotion regulation, a strategy of allowing emotions, thoughts and bodily sensations to be present without trying to change, suppress or escape them. It differs from reappraisal, which changes the meaning of a situation, and from resignation, because acceptance concerns internal experience rather than the circumstances that produce it. Acceptance is a central process in acceptance- and mindfulness-based therapies; meta-analytic work compares its neural correlates with those of reappraisal, and the two appear to rely on partly different networks.

Sources Hayes (1996) Hofmann (2010) Monachesi (2023)

Acute exercise effect

Empirical

Akutní účinek pohybu

A change in affect during a single bout of physical activity or in the hours after it, as distinct from the effects of regular activity over weeks. Studies in everyday settings consistently associate activity with higher positive, energetic affect over the next few hours, while evidence for lower negative affect is inconsistent. How the bout feels depends partly on intensity, with pleasure declining mainly above the ventilatory threshold.

Affect

Theoretical

Afekt

An umbrella term for felt states that have a pleasant or unpleasant quality and some degree of activation, including emotions, moods and momentary feelings. Many researchers describe core affect along two dimensions, valence and arousal. Usage varies between traditions: in some writing affect is a synonym for emotion, in others it names the more basic feeling component underlying both emotion and mood.

Affect labeling

Empirical

Pojmenování afektu

Putting a feeling into words, for example naming an emotional reaction to an image instead of only looking at it. In a neuroimaging study, labeling the emotion in facial expressions was associated with lower amygdala activity and higher activity in right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex than passive viewing or labeling other attributes. The effect is usually described as implicit regulation, because it does not require a deliberate intention to feel differently.

Sources Lieberman (2007)

Affective computing

Technical

Afektivní informatika

The study and development of computing systems that recognise, interpret, simulate or respond to human affect, a research programme named by Rosalind Picard in 1997. In practice such systems estimate emotional categories or dimensions from signals such as facial movements, voice, text or physiology, and the validity of those estimates depends on the assumed link between signal and state. The field also raises ethical questions about consent, surveillance and the use of such inferences in consequential decisions.

Sources Picard (1997) Barrett (2019) Stark (2021)

Alexithymia

Clinical

Alexithymie

A personality trait characterised by difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings to others, and an externally oriented thinking style. It is not a diagnosis and is distributed continuously in the population; it is most often measured with the self-report Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Because the scale asks people to judge their own awareness of emotion, scores may be limited by the very difficulty they are meant to capture, which is one reason researchers also use interview and performance measures.

Sources Bagby (1994)

Allostasis

Theoretical

Alostáza

Physiological regulation that achieves stability through change, anticipating demands and adjusting set points rather than holding them constant. The term was introduced by Sterling and Eyer and later linked by McEwen and colleagues to allostatic load, the cumulative cost of repeated or prolonged activation. Critics argue that the concept adds little to a careful reading of homeostasis.

Sources Sterling (1988) Sterling (2012) Day (2005)

Allostatic load

Theoretical

Alostatická zátěž

The cumulative physiological cost of repeated or prolonged activation of stress-response systems. McEwen described how stress mediators such as cortisol and catecholamines are protective in the short term but can contribute to wear on cardiovascular, metabolic and immune function when activation is frequent, prolonged or poorly terminated. The concept concerns patterns over months and years, not the response to a single stressful episode.

Sources McEwen (1998)

Amygdala

Empirical

Amygdala

A pair of almond-shaped clusters of nuclei in the medial temporal lobes. Imaging studies associate amygdala activity with the salience and relevance of stimuli, including but not limited to threat, and with learning about them. Popular descriptions of it as 'the fear centre' are not supported: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies found that the amygdala was active across several emotion categories and during non-emotional tasks, and that discrete emotions could not be consistently localised to single regions.

Sources Lindquist (2012) Lieberman (2007)

Appraisal

Theoretical

Hodnocení (appraisal)

In emotion theory, the evaluation of what an event means for a person's well-being, goals and ability to cope. Appraisal theories hold that such evaluations elicit emotions and differentiate one emotion from another, so the same event can produce anger in one person and sadness in another. Whether appraisals cause emotions or are part of how emotional episodes are described remains debated.

Sources Lazarus (1991) Moors (2013)

Arousal

Empirical

Arousal (aktivace)

The degree of physiological and subjective activation, ranging from calm or sleepy to excited or agitated. Arousal is one of the two dimensions commonly used to describe affect, alongside valence, and it is indexed by self-report and by autonomic measures such as electrodermal activity and heart rate. A meta-analysis of anger management activities found that activities which decrease arousal reduced anger, whereas activities which increase arousal did not reliably do so.

Sources Mauss (2009) Kjærvik (2024) Kreibig (2010)

Attentional deployment

Theoretical

Zaměření pozornosti

A family of emotion regulation strategies in the process model that changes which aspects of a situation receive attention, including distraction and concentration. In a meta-analysis of experiments, distraction was effective in the short term, whereas concentrating on one's feelings was not. Repeatedly directing attention to the cause of distress overlaps with rumination.

Sources Gross (1998) Webb (2012)

Autonomic nervous system

Empirical

Autonomní nervový systém

The part of the peripheral nervous system that regulates largely involuntary functions such as heart rate, breathing, sweating and digestion, through sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. Emotional episodes are accompanied by changes in autonomic activity, which is why measures such as heart rate variability and electrodermal activity appear in emotion research. Meta-analytic evidence indicates that autonomic patterns vary widely within emotion categories and do not form consistent, category-specific fingerprints.

Sources Kreibig (2010) Siegel (2018)

Avoidance learning

Theoretical

Učení vyhýbání

Learning to perform behaviours that prevent or end an anticipated aversive outcome. Two-factor theory proposed that fear is first acquired and avoidance is then reinforced by the reduction of fear; later models add expectancies and goal-directed processes. Because successful avoidance prevents disconfirmation, it can maintain fear that would otherwise diminish.

Sources Mowrer (1951) Krypotos (2015)

Awe

Theoretical

Úžas

An emotion felt in response to something perceived as vast, whether physically, conceptually or socially, that challenges one's current understanding. Keltner and Haidt proposed perceived vastness and a need for accommodation as its two central appraisals, with threat, beauty, ability, virtue and the supernatural shaping its tone. Awe can be pleasant or tinged with fear, and it is often grouped with the self-transcendent emotions.

Sources Keltner (2003)

B

Baseline

Technical

Výchozí hodnota (baseline)

A reference measurement taken before or outside the condition of interest, against which change is evaluated. Physiological signals differ greatly between people and between moments, so a value such as skin conductance or heart rate variability is interpretable mainly relative to a person's own baseline recorded under comparable conditions. Methodological recommendations therefore specify the duration, posture and context of baseline recordings.

Sources Laborde (2017) Boucsein (2012)

Basic emotion theory

Theoretical

Teorie základních emocí

The view that a set of emotions evolved as distinct families, each with characteristic signals, physiology and eliciting events, and sharing features such as rapid onset and brief duration. Recent versions describe more than twenty emotions expressed in multimodal, dynamic patterns and allow for cultural and contextual influence. Meta-analyses finding no consistent autonomic or neural signature per category are the main challenge to it.

Sources Ekman (1992) Keltner (2019)

Blinding

Technical

Zaslepení

Keeping participants, practitioners, outcome assessors or analysts unaware of which condition each participant received, so that expectations cannot shape outcomes or their measurement. In psychological interventions participants usually know what they are doing, so full blinding is rarely possible; blinding outcome assessors and analysts remains feasible. Where blinding is absent, self-reported outcomes are more exposed to expectation effects than objective ones.

Brooding

Empirical

Hloubání

A form of rumination involving passive, evaluative dwelling on one's situation and its shortfalls, often in abstract questions such as why something keeps happening. It is usually contrasted with reflection, a more purposeful attempt to understand or solve a problem. In an experience-sampling study, brooding but not reflective pondering was associated with higher negative affect.

Sources Moberly (2008) Watkins (2008)

C

Catharsis

Historical

Katarze

From the Greek for cleansing; Aristotle used it for what tragedy achieves through pity and fear, and commentators have read it as purgation, purification or clarification. Breuer and Freud turned it into a clinical method of emotional discharge, and empirical psychology turned it into a testable claim that expressing an emotion reduces it. On this site catharsis means a subjectively felt release of emotional tension after expression, exertion or immersion, without any assumption that the cause of the tension has changed.

Sources Aristotle (c. 335 BCE) Breuer (1895) Pennebaker (1997)

Clinical boundary

Clinical

Klinická hranice

The point at which self-help strategies and popular-science information are no longer an adequate response and professional assessment is appropriate. Common indications are distress that persists for weeks, that increasingly disrupts sleep, work or relationships, that follows a traumatic event and does not ease, or that involves thoughts of self-harm, which call for contacting a doctor or crisis service promptly. Crossing this boundary is not a failure of coping; effective, structured treatments exist, and the material on this site is not a substitute for them.

Co-regulation

Theoretical

Koregulace

A process in which relationship partners form a linked emotional system, so that each person's affective and physiological fluctuations influence the other's in a way that contributes to emotional stability for both. Butler and Randall proposed restricting the term to such bidirectional, oscillating linkage, because it had been used loosely for any form of social influence on emotion. It is studied mostly in couples and in parent–child dyads, with repeated measures over time.

Sources Butler (2013)

Cognitive behavioural therapy

Clinical

Kognitivně-behaviorální terapie

A family of structured, time-limited psychotherapies that target the interplay of thoughts, emotions and behaviour, using methods such as cognitive restructuring, behavioural activation and exposure. A meta-analysis of 144 randomised trials found large effects for depression and several anxiety disorders against control conditions, but smaller effects after adjusting for publication bias, few high-quality trials, and small to moderate effects when compared with care as usual or pill placebo rather than waiting lists. It is one well-tested option, not the only effective one.

Sources Cuijpers (2016)

Collective effervescence

Empirical

Kolektivní efervescence

A term from Rimé and colleagues for the heightened, shared emotional state that can arise during collective gatherings such as demonstrations, commemorations and festivals, marked by intense emotion, a sense of unity and increased social sharing. A meta-analytic review associated participation in such gatherings with stronger group identification and prosocial and collective-action outcomes. The evidence relies largely on self-report and cross-sectional designs, so the direction of these associations is not settled.

Sources Pizarro (2022) Rimé (2009)

Component process model

Theoretical

Model komponentních procesů

Klaus Scherer's appraisal theory, in which emotion is a dynamic process: a sequence of appraisal checks drives coordinated changes in motivation, physiology and expression, and feeling and verbal labelling follow as further components. The model predicts that the pattern of appraisal outcomes shapes which emotion unfolds. Support for the proposed sequence comes largely from the model's proponents.

Confidence

Technical

Míra jistoty

In the evidence ledger, a rating of how firmly a specific claim is supported: HIGH, MODERATE, LOW or UNKNOWN. It is distinct from the evidence level, which classifies the design of a source, because a claim resting on strong designs can still merit lower confidence when results are inconsistent, indirect or drawn from narrow samples. UNKNOWN marks claims for which the available sources do not allow a responsible judgement.

Confidence interval

Technical

Interval spolehlivosti

A range of values computed from data that expresses the precision of an estimate, such as an effect size. A 95% interval is produced by a procedure that, over many repetitions, would contain the true value 95% of the time; it does not mean there is a 95% probability that the true value lies in one particular interval. Wide intervals signal imprecise estimates, and reporting intervals alongside effect sizes is widely recommended over relying on significance tests alone.

Sources Cumming (2014)

Confounding

Technical

Zkreslení matoucí proměnnou (confounding)

A distortion of an estimated association that arises when a third variable influences both the supposed cause and the outcome. For example, people who talk about their feelings more may also have more social support, so an association between talking and recovery could partly reflect support rather than talking itself. Random allocation reduces confounding by design; in observational data, statistical control can help only when the relevant variables are known, measured well, and are not colliders or mediators.

Sources Rohrer (2018) Hernán (2004)

Construct validity

Technical

Konstruktová validita

The degree to which a measure captures the psychological construct it is meant to capture, rather than something correlated with it. For emotion, construct validity is difficult to establish because there is no single agreed criterion: self-report, behaviour and physiology each capture different aspects and often agree only modestly. A measure can be highly reliable, giving the same value repeatedly, and still have weak construct validity.

Sources Mauss (2009) Barrett (2019)

Context

Technical

Kontext

In inference about emotion, the situation, culture, relationship, bodily state and activity in which a signal occurs. The same facial configuration or change in heart rate can accompany different states in different contexts, so a signal considered without its context supports only weak conclusions. Reviews of facial movement and autonomic data identify context as one of the main sources of variation that simple signal-to-emotion mappings ignore.

Sources Barrett (2019) Siegel (2018)

Continuing bonds

Theoretical

Pokračující pouta

An ongoing inner relationship with a person who has died, expressed for example in memories, inner conversations, keeping possessions or a sense of their presence. The concept challenged older views that mourning should end in detachment. Reviews note that whether and when continuing bonds are adaptive remains unclear, and attachment-based models have been proposed to predict it.

Sources Stroebe (2010)

Correlation coefficient

Technical

Korelační koeficient

A number between −1 and +1 that describes the strength and direction of a linear association between two variables, most often Pearson's r. A correlation says nothing by itself about which variable influences the other, or whether a third variable drives both. It can be attenuated by unreliable measurement or a restricted range, and a correlation computed across people need not hold within any one person over time.

Sources Rohrer (2018)

Cortisol awakening response

Technical

Kortizolová odpověď na probuzení (CAR)

The marked rise in cortisol over roughly the first 30 to 45 minutes after waking in the morning, usually measured from saliva samples that participants collect at home. It has been related to a wide range of psychosocial and health variables, but its measurement depends critically on sampling exactly on schedule from the moment of waking. Expert consensus guidelines call for objective checks of sampling times, because small delays can distort the estimate and produce spurious associations.

Sources Stalder (2016)

Crisis line

Clinical

Krizová linka

A telephone, text or chat service, usually free, confidential and available at any hour, that offers immediate support to people in acute distress, including suicidal crisis, and helps connect them with further care. In an evaluation of eight US crisis centres, suicidal callers reported decreases in suicidality during the call and further decreases in hopelessness and psychological pain in the following weeks; the study had no comparison group and only about a third of callers were followed up. When there is immediate danger to life, emergency services are the appropriate first contact.

Sources Gould (2007)

Crying

Empirical

Pláč

Emotional tearing, often accompanied by vocal and respiratory changes, typically in response to loss, helplessness or being moved. Retrospective survey data suggest that people more often report feeling better after crying when they receive social support and when the situation that prompted it is resolved or understood. Whether crying itself has a self-soothing physiological function remains debated, and the evidence is mixed.

Sources Bylsma (2008) Gračanin (2014)

D

Demand characteristics

Technical

Požadavkové charakteristiky (demand characteristics)

Cues in an experimental situation that convey to participants what the study is about or what response is expected, and that can shape their behaviour independently of the manipulation. Orne described the experiment as a social situation in which participants actively try to be good subjects. Studies of emotion regulation are particularly exposed, because instructions such as 'try to feel less upset' make the expected answer obvious; post-experimental inquiry, cover stories and measures less open to self-presentation are used to reduce the problem.

Sources Orne (1962)

Distraction

Empirical

Odvedení pozornosti (distrakce)

An attentional regulation strategy that shifts attention away from the emotional aspects of a situation or from the situation altogether. Meta-analytic evidence indicates that distraction reduces emotional experience in the short term, and in venting experiments it was followed by less aggression than rumination. Because it does not change the appraisal of the situation, its effects are generally expected to be shorter-lived than those of reappraisal when the situation recurs.

Sources Bushman (2002) Webb (2012)

Dose–response relationship

Technical

Vztah dávky a odpovědi

A pattern in which the size of an outcome changes systematically with the amount, intensity or duration of an exposure or intervention. A dose–response gradient is one of several considerations that strengthen a causal interpretation, although it can also arise from confounding if the dose is not assigned at random. Relationships need not be linear: benefits may level off, or reverse beyond a certain amount.

Sources Cuijpers (2019)

Dual process model of bereavement

Theoretical

Duální procesový model truchlení

A model of coping with loss proposed by Stroebe and Schut that distinguishes loss-oriented stressors, such as yearning and reminders, from restoration-oriented stressors, such as new roles and practical tasks. Adaptive coping is described as oscillation between confronting and avoiding each, including respite from grieving. It was proposed as an alternative to the grief work hypothesis, which holds that loss must be worked through.

Sources Stroebe (1999)

E

Ecological momentary assessment

Technical

Ekologické okamžikové hodnocení (EMA)

A family of methods in which people report their current states repeatedly in daily life, for example several times a day on a phone, rather than recalling them later in a laboratory. Momentary reports reduce the reliance on memory and general beliefs that shapes retrospective self-report, and repeated sampling makes it possible to study how emotions change over time. The method still depends on self-report and can alter what it measures by prompting reflection.

Sources Robinson (2002) Kuppens (2017)

Ecological validity

Technical

Ekologická validita

The degree to which the conditions, tasks and stimuli of a study resemble the situations in daily life to which its findings are meant to apply. Much evidence on emotion regulation comes from brief laboratory inductions with film clips, images or staged provocations, which differ from long-lasting personal difficulties. Methods such as ecological momentary assessment gain ecological validity by sampling experience in daily life, usually at the cost of experimental control.

Sources Shiffman (2008)

Effect size

Technical

Velikost účinku

A quantitative estimate of how large a difference or association is, expressed in a standardised form such as a standardised mean difference or a correlation coefficient. Unlike a p-value, which mainly reflects whether a result is distinguishable from zero given the sample size, an effect size indicates magnitude and can be compared and pooled across studies. Conventional labels such as small, medium and large are rough guides, and practical importance depends on the outcome and context.

Electrodermal activity

Technical

Elektrodermální aktivita

Changes in the electrical properties of the skin, usually measured as skin conductance, which reflect eccrine sweat gland activity under sympathetic control. It is widely used as an index of physiological arousal and orienting responses. Electrodermal activity does not indicate whether a state is pleasant or unpleasant, and it is also affected by temperature, movement and individual differences, so it cannot by itself identify a specific emotion.

Sources Boucsein (2012) Kreibig (2010)

Emotion

Theoretical

Emoce

A relatively brief, coordinated response to a situation that is appraised as relevant to a person's goals, involving subjective experience, physiological change and tendencies toward expression and action. Theories disagree about whether a small set of basic emotions has distinct, universal signatures or whether emotion categories are constructed from more general processes and vary across instances and contexts. Research reviewed on this site finds considerable variability in facial and autonomic responses within the same emotion category.

Sources Gross (1998) Barrett (2019) Siegel (2018)

Emotion dynamics

Empirical

Dynamika emocí

The study of how emotional states change over time: how quickly they rise, how long they last, how variable they are and how strongly one moment carries over into the next. Common indicators include intensity, variability, instability and inertia, usually estimated from repeated momentary reports. Differences in these patterns have been associated with well-being and psychological difficulties, although the indicators overlap and their unique contributions are debated.

Sources Kuppens (2017)

Emotion regulation

Theoretical

Regulace emocí

The processes by which people influence which emotions they have, when they have them and how they experience and express them. Gross's process model groups strategies by the point at which they act: situation selection and modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change and response modulation. Meta-analyses indicate that strategies differ in effectiveness and that habitual reliance on rumination, avoidance and suppression is associated with symptoms across several disorders.

Sources Gross (1998) Webb (2012) Aldao (2010)

Emotional contagion

Empirical

Emoční nákaza

The tendency for emotions expressed by one person to be taken up by others, often without deliberate intent or awareness. It is well documented in face-to-face laboratory settings; in a large experiment on Facebook, reducing positive posts in users' feeds was followed by fewer positive and more negative posts, and the reverse for negative posts. The effects in that study were very small, the outcome was the language of posts rather than felt emotion, and the study drew wide criticism over informed consent.

Sources Kramer (2014)

Emotional granularity

Empirical

Emoční granularita

The degree to which a person distinguishes between similar emotional experiences, for example between feeling irritated, ashamed and anxious rather than simply bad; also called emotion differentiation. It is usually estimated from repeated diary or momentary ratings, as the extent to which ratings of same-valence emotions do not move together. Higher negative-emotion differentiation has been associated with more frequent regulation of intense negative emotions and with fewer maladaptive coping behaviours, but most evidence is correlational.

Sources Barrett (2001) Kashdan (2015)

Emotional processing

Clinical

Emoční zpracování

In Foa and Kozak's account, the modification of a fear memory structure through activation of the fear together with information that is incompatible with it, which is the rationale for exposure therapy. Exposure is structured, graded and repeated, and it is not the same as simply reliving or expressing distress. More broadly the term refers to working through an emotional experience so that it becomes less disruptive, as opposed to discharging it.

Sources Foa (1986)

Endogenous opioids and the endorphin hypothesis

Theoretical

Endogenní opioidy a endorfinová hypotéza

Endogenous opioids, including beta-endorphin, are peptides produced by the body that act on opioid receptors and are involved in pain modulation and reward. The endorphin hypothesis proposes that activities such as laughter, synchronised dance and exertion feel good and promote bonding partly through opioid release. Most human studies test it indirectly, using a rise in pain threshold as a proxy, so the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis rather than a direct measurement of opioid activity.

Sources Dunbar (2012) Tarr (2015)

Entrainment

Empirical

Rytmické strhávání (entrainment)

The alignment of a rhythmic process with an external rhythm, such as tapping or dancing in time with a musical beat. Social entrainment is the special case in which the rhythm comes from another person, so that individuals coordinate their movements with one another. It is a precondition for the interpersonal synchrony studied in relation to affiliation and cooperation, but entrainment itself describes timing, not the emotional or social consequences sometimes attributed to it.

Sources Phillips-Silver (2010) Janata (2012)

Evidence level

Technical

Úroveň důkazů

The site's classification of a source by study design, from A to E. A: meta-analyses and systematic reviews of controlled studies; B: controlled experiments; C: longitudinal or quasi-experimental studies; D: cross-sectional and qualitative studies, narrative reviews and theory; E: classical texts, expert opinion, project records and artistic material. The level describes design, not truth, and is read together with the confidence rating of each claim.

Evidence-based psychotherapy

Clinical

Psychoterapie založená na důkazech

Structured psychological treatment delivered by a trained professional whose efficacy for specific problems has been tested in controlled trials. Different therapies often show comparable average outcomes, which has fuelled debate about whether they work through techniques specific to each therapy or through common factors such as the therapeutic alliance. A review concluded that, because research on mechanisms has so far been correlational, no common or specific factor yet meets the criteria for an established working mechanism.

Sources Cuijpers (2019)

Experiential avoidance

Clinical

Zážitkové vyhýbání

The attempt to escape, suppress or alter unwanted internal experiences, such as thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations, even when doing so causes harm over time. Hayes and colleagues proposed it as a functional process shared by many psychological difficulties, and it became a central target of acceptance and commitment therapy. An activity is not avoidant by its form; what matters is whether its main function is to make an internal state go away.

Sources Hayes (1996)

Experimental disclosure

Empirical

Experimentální sdělování

The umbrella term for randomised studies in which participants disclose thoughts and feelings about personal, meaningful topics, in writing or aloud, compared with a control task. Expressive writing is its best-known form. A meta-analysis of 146 randomised studies found a positive, significant but small average effect, with effects varying by moderators such as dose and instructions.

Sources Frattaroli (2006) Smyth (1998)

Expressive suppression

Empirical

Potlačení projevu emocí

A response-focused regulation strategy that inhibits the outward expression of an emotion that is already under way, for example keeping a neutral face. In Gross's work suppression reduced visible expression but not the reported experience, and it was associated with increased physiological activation. People who habitually suppress reported less positive and more negative emotion and poorer social functioning than people who habitually reappraise, although these data are correlational.

Sources Gross (1998) Gross (2003)

Expressive writing

Empirical

Expresivní psaní

A procedure, developed by Pennebaker and colleagues, in which people write about their deepest thoughts and feelings concerning a difficult experience, typically for 15 to 20 minutes on several consecutive days. In early studies, writing about both facts and feelings was followed by health benefits compared with control writing. Later analyses linked benefit to the development of a coherent account and to changes in causal and insight words, which points to cognitive processing rather than discharge alone.

Sources Pennebaker (1986) Pennebaker (1997)

Extended process model

Theoretical

Rozšířený procesní model

An elaboration of the process model of emotion regulation that treats regulation as a form of valuation and distinguishes three stages: identifying whether to regulate, selecting a strategy, and implementing it, with monitoring throughout. It shifts attention from which strategy is best to how strategies are chosen and adjusted. Laboratory studies of regulation choice are one line of evidence it draws on.

Sources Gross (2015) Sheppes (2011)

External validity

Technical

Externí validita

The extent to which a result obtained in one study holds for other people, settings, times, interventions and outcome measures. A well-controlled experiment in university students may have strong internal validity yet limited external validity for clinical populations or other cultures. External validity is judged from the diversity of samples and settings across studies, and it is one reason the evidence ledger records each source's population.

F

False negative

Technical

Falešně negativní výsledek

A result in which a classifier or test reports that a condition is absent when it is present, for example a system that reports no distress in a person who is distressed. The rate of false negatives trades off against the rate of false positives as a decision threshold is moved. For states without a clear ground truth, such as emotions, even estimating this rate depends on which criterion is accepted as correct.

False positive

Technical

Falešně pozitivní výsledek

A result in which a classifier or test reports that a condition is present when it is absent, for example labelling a neutral face as angry. When the condition is rare in the population being screened, even an accurate classifier can produce more false positives than true positives. In emotion inference, false positives carry particular ethical weight when labels are used in hiring, education, security or policing.

Sources Stark (2021)

Feature

Technical

Příznak (feature)

In signal processing and machine learning, a quantity computed from a raw signal and used as input to analysis or classification, such as mean heart rate, an HRV index or the number of skin conductance responses per minute. Feature choice encodes assumptions about which aspects of a signal matter, and different features derived from the same recording can lead to different conclusions. A feature that separates conditions in one sample may not generalise to other people or contexts.

Sources Laborde (2017) Siegel (2018)

Flow

Theoretical

Flow (stav plného ponoření)

A state of deep absorption in an activity, characterised by concentrated attention, a sense of control, merging of action and awareness, and altered perception of time, described by Csikszentmihalyi. It is thought to arise when the challenge of a task is balanced with a person's skill, although studies find that this balance predicts flow only under some conditions and for some people. Flow is measured mainly by self-report during or after activities, and it is not the same as relief or emotional resolution.

Sources Engeser (2008)

H

HPA axis

Empirical

Osa HPA

The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, a hormonal cascade in which the hypothalamus signals the pituitary gland, which in turn stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol. A meta-analysis of 208 laboratory studies found that psychological stressors raised cortisol on average, with the largest and longest-lasting responses to tasks that were uncontrollable and involved social-evaluative threat. Cortisol responses vary with time of day, sex, medication and many other factors, so a cortisol level is not a direct measure of how stressed a person feels.

Sources Dickerson (2004) McEwen (1998)

Habituation

Empirical

Habituace

A decrease in response to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly and has no significant consequence, one of the simplest forms of learning, found across species. It is distinguished from sensory adaptation and fatigue by features such as recovery after a pause and restoration of the response when a different stimulus intervenes. In emotion research, habituation of physiological responses to repeated stimuli must be considered when interpreting declining responses over a session, because a smaller response does not by itself indicate that an emotion has been processed or resolved.

Sources Rankin (2009)

Heart rate variability

Technical

Variabilita srdeční frekvence

The variation in time between successive heartbeats, summarised by time-domain and frequency-domain indices. Some indices, such as RMSSD and high-frequency power, are used to estimate cardiac vagal (parasympathetic) influence, and they have been associated with self-regulation in psychophysiological research. HRV is strongly affected by breathing, posture, movement, age and recording length, so recommendations stress controlled conditions and careful reporting before any psychological interpretation.

Sources Laborde (2017) Kreibig (2010)

Heterogeneity (I²)

Technical

Heterogenita (I²)

Variation in results between studies in a meta-analysis beyond what chance alone would produce, reflecting differences in populations, interventions, measures or study quality. The I² statistic, proposed by Higgins and Thompson, describes the proportion of total variation in study estimates that is due to heterogeneity rather than sampling error, independently of the number of studies and the effect metric. High heterogeneity means a pooled average may describe few real settings well, so moderators and the spread of effects matter as much as the mean.

Sources Higgins (2002)

Hydraulic model of emotion

Historical

Hydraulický model emocí

The popular picture of emotions as pressure that builds up and must be released to avoid harm, inherited in part from the cathartic method of the late nineteenth century. It predicts that expressing an emotion, such as hitting a punching bag when angry, should reduce it. Controlled experiments on anger did not support this prediction, and current emotion regulation research does not use the model.

I

Identity fusion

Theoretical

Fúze identity

A form of alignment with a group involving a visceral feeling of oneness, in which the boundary between personal and social identity becomes highly permeable. Swann and colleagues distinguish local fusion with small groups such as families from extended fusion with large collectives, and report that fusion measures are strong predictors of endorsement of extreme pro-group behaviour. Much of the evidence comes from self-reported willingness rather than observed behaviour, and the construct is relevant both to solidarity and to willingness to fight for a group.

Sources Swann (2012)

Inference

Technical

Inference (usuzování)

Reaching a conclusion about something not directly observed from data that are observed. Emotional states are not directly observable, so any statement about them from faces, voice or physiology is an inference whose strength depends on how specific and consistent the link between signal and state is, and on context. Describing such conclusions as estimates with stated uncertainty, rather than as readings, keeps the inferential step visible.

Sources Barrett (2019)

Interaction ritual chain

Theoretical

Řetězec interakčních rituálů

Randall Collins's sociological theory, developed from Durkheim, in which everyday encounters with co-presence, a shared focus and a shared mood work as rituals. Successful rituals generate emotional energy and symbols of membership, failed ones drain energy, and people are drawn towards the encounters that pay off. It is a theoretical framework rather than a measured model.

Interoception

Empirical

Interocepce

The sensing, interpretation and integration of signals from inside the body, such as heartbeat, breathing, hunger and visceral sensations. Research distinguishes interoceptive accuracy on objective tasks such as heartbeat detection, self-reported interoceptive sensibility, and metacognitive awareness of one's own accuracy; in one sample these three dimensions were dissociable. Heartbeat-counting tasks in particular have been criticised for being influenced by beliefs about heart rate, so accuracy scores should be interpreted cautiously.

Sources Garfinkel (2015)

Interpersonal emotion regulation

Theoretical

Interpersonální regulace emocí

Regulating emotion through social interaction, either one's own emotion with the help of others or another person's emotion. Zaki and Williams distinguish intrinsic regulation, in which a person uses others to change their own feelings, from extrinsic regulation, in which a person tries to change someone else's, and response-dependent processes, which rely on the other's actual reaction, from response-independent ones, such as the effect of putting feelings into words for someone. The framework organises findings on sharing, support and empathy but is still being tested.

Sources Zaki (2013)

Interpersonal synchrony

Empirical

Interpersonální synchronie

The temporal coordination of movement, sound or physiology between people, such as tapping, walking, singing or dancing in time. Experiments have associated synchronous activity with greater reported affiliation, cooperation and, in dance, higher pain thresholds, an effect used as an indirect marker of endorphin activity. Effects are typically measured shortly after brief laboratory tasks, so their duration and their size in real-world groups are less well established.

Sources Hove (2009) Wiltermuth (2009) Tarr (2015)

M

Mediator

Technical

Mediátor

A variable that lies on the pathway between a cause and an outcome and is proposed to explain how or why the effect occurs, for example a change in how an event is understood linking expressive writing to later well-being. Statistical mediation analysis of correlational data cannot by itself establish such a pathway, because the mediator and the outcome may share unmeasured causes. Stronger support requires temporal ordering, experimental manipulation of the mediator, and a dose–response pattern.

Sources Baron (1986) Cuijpers (2019)

Meta-analysis

Technical

Metaanalýza

A statistical synthesis that combines effect sizes from multiple studies of the same question into a pooled estimate and examines how results vary between studies. When based on a systematic search and on controlled studies, it provides the strongest design-based evidence on this site. Its conclusions are limited by the quality of the included studies, by publication bias and by heterogeneity in methods and populations.

Moderator

Technical

Moderátor

A variable that changes the strength or direction of the relationship between two other variables, answering the question 'for whom or under what conditions'. For instance, whether talking about an event helps may depend on whether the listener responds with support or with judgement. Moderators found by comparing studies within a meta-analysis are associations across studies, not tested causes, and they are easily confounded with other study features.

Sources Baron (1986)

Mood

Theoretical

Nálada

A diffuse affective state that typically lasts longer than an emotion, is less intense and is not clearly directed at a specific object or event. Moods colour perception and judgement and can persist after the circumstances that contributed to them have passed. The boundary between mood and emotion is drawn differently by different authors, and in everyday language the words overlap.

Mourning ritual

Empirical

Smuteční rituál

A structured, often repeated sequence of actions performed after a loss, ranging from shared ceremonies such as funerals to small private acts. In experiments, recalling or performing rituals after a loss was followed by lower self-reported grief, mediated by a sense of control. In a field study, bereaved people valued funerals and rituals, but these were not associated with later grief reactions.

Sources Norton (2014) Mitima-Verloop (2021) Hobson (2018)

Multimodality

Technical

Multimodalita

The combination of several kinds of data, such as self-report, facial movement, voice, text and physiology, in one analysis. Combining modalities can reduce reliance on any single ambiguous channel, but it does not remove the underlying problem that each channel relates to emotional states only probabilistically and context-dependently. Multimodal systems also collect more personal data, which increases the importance of consent and data minimisation.

Sources Picard (1997) Stark (2021)

Music-based emotion regulation

Empirical

Regulace emocí pomocí hudby

The use of listening to, playing or moving to music to change or maintain emotional states, for example for relaxation, distraction, discharge or reflective processing. Survey and interview studies describe these uses across the lifespan, and meta-analyses of music interventions report reductions in stress-related outcomes. The same strategy can be helpful or unhelpful depending on how it is used: music used to dwell on distress has been associated with rumination rather than recovery.

Sources Saarikallio (2007) Saarikallio (2011) Baltazar (2016) Cook (2019) Miranda (2020) de Witte (2020)

N

Negative reinforcement

Theoretical

Negativní posílení

In learning theory, the strengthening of a behaviour because it removes or reduces an aversive state; it is not the same as punishment. Relief that follows an activity makes that activity more likely to be repeated in similar circumstances, whether or not it changes the source of the aversive state. This mechanism explains how a strategy can feel effective and become habitual while the underlying difficulty persists.

Sources Hayes (1996)

P

P-hacking

Technical

P-hacking

Undisclosed flexibility in data collection, analysis and reporting, such as trying several outcomes, adding participants until a result is significant, or selectively excluding observations, that increases the chance of obtaining a statistically significant result. Simulations by Simmons, Nelson and Simonsohn showed that combining a few such choices can raise the false-positive rate far above the nominal 5%. The practice is often unintentional, and preregistration and full disclosure of analytic decisions are the main safeguards.

Sources Simmons (2011)

Peak-end rule

Empirical

Pravidlo vrcholu a konce

The finding that retrospective evaluations of an experience are dominated by its most intense moment and by how it ends, while its duration is largely neglected. In one demonstration, participants preferred to repeat a longer episode of cold-water discomfort that ended slightly less unpleasantly over a shorter one. For pleasant episodes, a strong peak and a good ending can make an experience remembered as more restorative than its lasting effects justify.

Sources Fredrickson (1993) Kahneman (1993)

Perseverative cognition

Theoretical

Perseverativní kognice

Repetitive thinking about stressors, such as worry about the future and rumination about the past. The perseverative cognition hypothesis proposes that it prolongs stress-related physiological activation beyond the stressor itself; worry and rumination are associated with enhanced cardiovascular, endocrine and immune activity. Its authors described the support as preliminary.

Sources Brosschot (2006)

Placebo effect

Technical

Placebo efekt

Improvement attributable to the context of an intervention, such as expectation, ritual, attention and the relationship with a practitioner, rather than to its specific active ingredient. Research describes placebo effects as genuine biopsychosocial phenomena that go beyond spontaneous remission or normal fluctuation, and they are most evident on self-reported outcomes such as pain or distress. In emotion research, expectation-driven relief matters because believing that an activity is cathartic can shape both how it feels and how it is reported.

Sources Kaptchuk (2015) Bushman (1999)

Prefrontal cortex in emotion regulation

Empirical

Prefrontální kůra v regulaci emocí

The front part of the frontal lobes, whose lateral, medial and orbital subregions are associated with goal maintenance, cognitive control and valuation. A meta-analysis of 48 neuroimaging studies found that cognitive reappraisal consistently engaged dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal, parietal and lateral temporal regions and was accompanied by modulation of bilateral amygdala activity. These are group-level associations from imaging tasks; they describe regions involved in instructed regulation, not a switch that turns emotions off.

Sources Buhle (2014) Ochsner (2005)

Preregistration

Technical

Předregistrace

Recording a study's hypotheses, design and analysis plan in a time-stamped public registry before the outcome data are observed. It separates confirmatory tests of predictions from exploratory analyses generated after seeing the data, which makes undisclosed analytic flexibility easier to detect. Preregistration does not make a study correct, and deviations from the plan are acceptable when they are reported transparently.

Sources Nosek (2018)

Prolonged grief disorder

Clinical

Prolongovaná porucha truchlení

A clinical condition in which intense grief, centred on yearning for the deceased and accompanied by symptoms such as difficulty accepting the loss or feeling that life is meaningless, persists long after a death and impairs functioning. It is included in ICD-11; a meta-analysis of non-violent bereavement estimated a pooled prevalence of about one in ten bereaved adults. Only a qualified professional can assess it; intense grief in the first months is not in itself a disorder.

Sources Prigerson (2009) Lundorff (2017) Johannsen (2019)

Psychological debriefing

Clinical

Psychologický debriefing

A single-session intervention, delivered soon after a traumatic event, in which people are encouraged to recount the event and express their emotional reactions. A Cochrane systematic review found no evidence that single-session individual debriefing prevents post-traumatic stress disorder, and some trials reported worse outcomes in the debriefed group. The finding is often cited as a caution against assuming that early emotional expression is protective for everyone.

Sources Rose (2002)

Publication bias

Technical

Publikační zkreslení

The tendency for studies with statistically significant or striking results to be published, and published sooner, than studies with null or unwelcome results. A literature filtered this way overstates effects, and meta-analyses built on it inherit the distortion. Asymmetry in a funnel plot, in which small studies show larger effects, is consistent with publication bias but can also reflect genuine differences between small and large studies; preregistration and registered reports address the problem at its source.

Sources Egger (1997)

R

Randomized controlled trial

Technical

Randomizovaná kontrolovaná studie

A study in which participants are allocated at random to an intervention or a comparison condition, so that differences in outcome can be attributed to the intervention with less risk of confounding. Its credibility also depends on allocation concealment, blinding where possible, adequate sample size, low attrition and pre-specified outcomes. Well-conducted trials support causal conclusions for the studied population and setting, which may differ from everyday conditions.

Reappraisal

Empirical

Přehodnocení

A cognitive regulation strategy that changes how a situation is interpreted in order to change its emotional impact, for example viewing a provocation as the result of someone else's bad day. Meta-analytic evidence indicates that reappraising the situation itself tends to be more effective than attempting to change the emotional response directly, and habitual reappraisal is associated with more positive and less negative emotion. Recent work describes reappraisal as a family of tactics whose usefulness depends on the person, the situation and whether the situation can be changed.

Sources Gross (1998) Gross (2003) Ochsner (2005) Webb (2012) Uusberg (2023) Monachesi (2023)

Regression to the mean

Technical

Regrese k průměru

The statistical tendency for an unusually extreme measurement to be followed by one closer to the average, simply because part of any single measurement is random variation. People often seek help, or enrol in studies, when they feel at their worst, so they are likely to report some improvement later whatever is done. Without a comparison group, improvement after an intervention cannot be separated from this effect.

Relief versus resolution

Theoretical

Úleva versus řešení

The distinction, central to this project, between a change in how a state feels (relief) and a change in the conditions that produce it (resolution). Both are followed by feeling better, which makes them easy to confuse, and relief alone reinforces whatever preceded it. The artwork's status line problem_solved: false expresses this distinction in compressed form.

Sources Hayes (1996) Fredrickson (1993)

Repetitive thought

Theoretical

Opakující se myšlení

Prolonged or repeated thinking about oneself and one's concerns, a broad category that includes rumination, worry, reflection and mental rehearsal. Its consequences depend on the valence of its content, its context and its level of construal: abstract, evaluative thinking tends to be unconstructive, while concrete, process-focused thinking can support problem solving.

Sources Watkins (2008) Watkins (2005)

Replication

Technical

Replikace

Repeating a study, with new data, to test whether its finding recurs. In a large coordinated project that repeated 100 published psychology studies, replication effects were on average about half the size of the originals, and 36% of replications reached statistical significance compared with 97% of the originals. A failed replication does not by itself show that an original effect is false, but findings that have not been independently replicated warrant more cautious wording.

Sources Open Science Collaboration (2015)

Response modulation

Theoretical

Modulace odpovědi

The latest family of strategies in the process model of emotion regulation, acting on the experiential, behavioural or physiological response once an emotion is under way. Expressive suppression is the most studied example; on this site venting is also read as a form of response modulation. Because it acts after the appraisal, it can change how an emotion is shown without changing what the situation means.

Sources Gross (1998) Webb (2012)

Reverse inference

Technical

Reverzní inference

Reasoning from an observed signal back to a mental state, for example concluding that a person is angry because they scowl or afraid because a particular brain region is active. Such reasoning is justified only to the extent that the signal is specific to that state; if the same signal also occurs with other states, the inference is weak. Reviews of facial movement and autonomic data found that this specificity is generally low for emotion categories.

Sources Barrett (2019) Siegel (2018)

Reward prediction error

Theoretical

Chyba predikce odměny

The difference between the reward that was expected and the reward that was received, a quantity that learning models use to update expectations. Recordings in primates showed that the firing of midbrain dopamine neurons increases after unexpectedly good outcomes, shifts to cues that predict reward, and dips when an expected reward is omitted. The concept is used to interpret findings on anticipation and pleasure, for example in music, but dopamine signals are not a direct measure of felt pleasure.

Sources Schultz (1997) Salimpoor (2011)

Rumination

Empirical

Ruminace

Repetitive, passive focus on one's distress and its possible causes and consequences. Rumination predicts longer and more intense episodes of negative mood and is associated with the onset of depression, and in venting experiments it was followed by more anger and aggression. Not all repetitive thought is harmful: abstract, evaluative forms tend to be unconstructive, whereas concrete, process-focused forms can support problem solving.

Sources Nolen-Hoeksema (2008) Watkins (2008) Aldao (2010) Bushman (2002)

S

Selection bias

Technical

Výběrové zkreslení

A distortion that arises when the people who end up in a study, or in its analysis, differ systematically from the population of interest in ways related to both exposure and outcome. Examples include studying only people who sought help, only participants who completed follow-up, or only crying episodes that respondents chose to remember. In causal terms it results from conditioning on a common effect of two variables, which distinguishes it from confounding by a common cause.

Sources Hernán (2004) Rohrer (2018)

Self-distancing

Empirical

Sebedistancování

Reflecting on an experience from the perspective of an observer rather than reliving it from one's own point of view, for example by imagining watching the scene from a distance. In experiments, self-distanced reflection on upsetting memories was associated with lower emotional reactivity and less rumination than immersed recall, while still allowing people to make sense of the experience. It is used as a way to analyse why something happened without re-experiencing it at full intensity.

Sources Kross (2005) Kross (2011)

Self-report

Technical

Sebeposouzení (self-report)

A person's own account of their state, collected through questionnaires, rating scales, interviews or momentary prompts. Self-report is the most direct access to subjective experience, but it depends on awareness, language, willingness to disclose and, for past states, on memory and general beliefs about how one usually feels. Momentary reports rely more on current experience, whereas retrospective reports increasingly draw on such beliefs.

Sources Robinson (2002) Mauss (2009)

Self-transcendent emotions

Theoretical

Sebepřesahující emoce

A proposed category of positive emotions, such as compassion, gratitude, awe and elevation, that shift attention away from the self towards other people or something larger. Reviews argue that they share a reduced self-focus and promote prosocial behaviour and group coordination. The category is a theoretical grouping; how distinct these emotions are from other positive states, and whether they share specific physiology, remain open questions.

Sources Stellar (2017) Pizarro (2022)

Signal

Technical

Signál

A time-varying recording of a measurable quantity, such as the electrocardiogram, skin conductance, respiration or an audio waveform, from which features are derived. A raw signal contains the component of interest together with noise and artefacts from movement, electrodes, environment and unrelated bodily processes. The signal itself is not an emotion; linking it to one requires the inferential steps of feature extraction, comparison with a baseline and interpretation in context.

Sources Boucsein (2012)

Situation selection

Theoretical

Výběr situace

The earliest family of strategies in the process model of emotion regulation: choosing to enter or avoid situations according to the emotions they are expected to bring. It can prevent unwanted emotions altogether, but used rigidly it overlaps with avoidance and can narrow a person's life. Situation modification, the next family, changes a situation once one is in it.

Sources Gross (1998) Gross (2015)

Skin conductance response

Technical

Reakce kožní vodivosti (SCR)

A brief, phasic increase in the electrical conductance of the skin, typically beginning one to a few seconds after a stimulus, that reflects sympathetically driven sweat gland activity. It is distinguished from the slowly changing skin conductance level, and both are components of electrodermal activity. Skin conductance responses index arousal and orienting to novel or significant events, but they occur for pleasant, unpleasant and neutral stimuli alike and do not indicate which emotion, if any, a person is experiencing.

Sources Boucsein (2012)

Sleep deprivation

Empirical

Spánková deprivace

In research, the experimental removal of sleep, usually a full night without sleep, distinguished from partial sleep restriction and from sleep fragmentation by repeated awakenings. Meta-analyses of such experiments in healthy people find reduced positive affect and increased anxiety, with mixed effects on negative affect and emotional reactivity. It differs from insomnia, a persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep.

Sources Palmer (2024) Tomaso (2021) Minkel (2012)

Standardized mean difference (Hedges' g)

Technical

Standardizovaný rozdíl průměrů (Hedgesovo g)

An effect size that expresses the difference between two group means in units of their pooled standard deviation, so that studies using different scales can be compared. Cohen's d is the basic form; Hedges' g applies a correction for the slight overestimation of d in small samples. Values depend on which standard deviation is used, and within-subject designs require different formulas, so a g from one design is not automatically comparable with a g from another.

Sources Lakens (2013)

Statistical power and sample size

Technical

Statistická síla a velikost vzorku

Power is the probability that a study will detect an effect of a given size if that effect exists; it rises with sample size, effect size and measurement precision. Underpowered studies miss real effects, and, less obviously, the significant results they do report tend to exaggerate effect sizes and are less likely to reflect true effects. Power should be planned before data collection, typically for the smallest effect that would matter.

Sources Button (2013)

Statistical significance

Technical

Statistická významnost

A conventional label for a result whose p-value falls below a pre-set threshold, often 0.05. The p-value indicates how incompatible the data are with a specified statistical model, usually one of no effect; it does not measure the probability that a hypothesis is true or the size or importance of an effect. The American Statistical Association has cautioned against basing conclusions on whether a threshold was crossed, and a non-significant result is not evidence that an effect is absent.

Sources Wasserstein (2016) Cumming (2014)

T

Theory of constructed emotion

Theoretical

Teorie konstruovaných emocí

Lisa Feldman Barrett's account in which emotions are not triggered programmes but are constructed in the moment from predictions that combine interoceptive signals, past experience and emotion concepts. It builds on the idea of core affect and predicts variation rather than fixed signatures within emotion categories. Critics question how its broad predictive framework can be falsified.

Sources Barrett (2016) Russell (2003) Lindquist (2012)

Trauma-focused therapy

Clinical

Terapie zaměřená na trauma

Psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder that work directly with memories of the traumatic event and their meaning, such as cognitive processing therapy, cognitive therapy for PTSD, prolonged exposure and EMDR. A systematic review of 114 randomised trials with 8,171 participants found robust evidence of clinically important effects for trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapies and EMDR. These are structured treatments delivered by trained clinicians over several sessions, unlike single-session debriefing shortly after an event, which trials did not support.

Sources Lewis (2020) Rose (2002)

V

Vagal tone

Empirical

Vagový tonus

The ongoing influence of the vagus nerve, the main parasympathetic pathway, on the heart and other organs. It cannot be recorded directly in humans and is usually estimated from heart rate variability indices that track breathing-related changes in heart rate. The neurovisceral integration model proposes that higher resting vagally mediated HRV is associated with more flexible emotion regulation; the evidence is largely correlational, and the indices are sensitive to breathing, posture and fitness.

Sources Laborde (2017) Thayer (2000)

Valence

Theoretical

Valence

The pleasantness or unpleasantness of an affective state, one of the two dimensions commonly used to describe affect alongside arousal. Valence is most directly assessed by self-report, and to some extent by facial muscle activity and behavioural measures. Autonomic measures such as skin conductance track arousal more than valence, which is one reason physiological data alone cannot establish whether a person feels good or bad.

Venting

Empirical

Ventilace emocí

Expressing an emotion, especially anger, with the aim of getting it out, for example by shouting or hitting an object. In controlled experiments, venting while thinking about the provocation kept anger active and was followed by more aggression than sitting quietly, and belief that venting helps increased the tendency to vent. A meta-analysis found that arousal-reducing activities lowered anger, whereas arousal-increasing activities did not reliably do so.

Sources Bushman (1999) Bushman (2002) Kjærvik (2024)

W

Within-person and between-person effects

Technical

Intraindividuální a interindividuální účinky (within-person / between-person)

Two distinct questions that the same variables can answer. A between-person effect compares people, for example whether those who share emotions more often than others report more well-being; a within-person effect compares one person with themselves, for example whether someone feels better on days when they share more than they usually do. The two can differ in size and even in sign, and longitudinal multilevel models are used to separate them.

Sources Curran (2011)