Effects of cardiovascular arousal on emotional experience.

Studies of arousal and emotion show that generalized physiological arousal can enhance emotional experience for a range of different emotions. Other research shows that different emotions may be associated with specific patterns of physiological reactivity. Together these findings suggest that while nonspecific autonomic activation can be sufficient in the generation of emotion, specific patterns of reactivity may appear once the emotion is established.

Effects of self-affirmation on emotion and cardiovascular responses.

Self-affirmation is the act of focusing on important aspects of the self, such as personal values and characteristics. We used a within-participants design (N = 125) to examine cardiovascular reactivity and self-reported affective responses to the practice of self-affirmation. In the self-affirmation condition, we asked participants to write about their top-ranked personal value for 5 min and used a writing exercise unrelated to personal values in the control condition.